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COPVRiGHT OfiPOSIT 



THE LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 



JOHN TYLER 



JAMES KNOX POLK 



WILLIAM O. STODDARD 

Author of George Washington,"" '■'•John Adams and Thomas Jeff'erson, 
*'■ Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams,"" '■'■Jackson and 
Van Buren," " Vfysses S. Grant," etc. 




MAR 21 1888 7" 



NEW YORK 
FREDERICK A. STOKES & BROTHER 






•??6 



Copyright, 1888. 
By FREDERICK A. STOKES & BROTHER. 



/ 



CONTENTS. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

CHAPTER I. , 

A Patriotic Ancestry — Boyhood in Stirritia^ Times — Go- 
ing to College — Studying Medicine — Stories of the 
Indian Wars—Decidiiig ''to be a Soldier — Commissioned 
by President Washi}igton 

CHAPTER H. 

A Boy Officer— St. Clair s Defeat— A Trip through the 
Woods — Public Despondency — The Legion of the Unit- 
ed States — Mad Anthony — Harrison's Temperance 
Lectures — The hidian War 



CHAPTER HI. 

A Forward Movement — Battle of the Miami — Studying 
the Indians — Captain Harrison — In Command of Fort 
Washington — Marriage — Death of Wayne — Harrison 
Secretary of the Northwestern Territory — Delegate to 
Congress 1 7 

CHAPTER IV. 

Land Reform — Harrison made Governor of the Indiana 
Territory — Vast Power — Miscellatteous Duties — Upper 
Louisiana Added — The Indians and Fire-water — Te- 
cutnseh and the Prophet — A Libel Suit 25 

CHAPTER V. 

Indian Treaties — Growth of the New Country — Corre- 
spondence with Tecumseh — The Council at Vincennes — 
The Indian View of the Land Question — Harrisons 
Intrepidity 43 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

PAGB 

Condition of the Country — Attitude of Great Britain — 
The War Party — Growing Statesmen — More Councils 
with Tecumseh — Border Warfare — Battle of Tippe- 
canoe — The Story of Ben 59 

CHAPTER Vn. 

Tecumseh' s Return — War Declared with England — The 
Rising of the Tribes — Htdl's Surrender — Harrison a 
General — A very New Commissioti — Wide Authority — 
Quelling Discotitented Volunteers 76 

CHAPTER Vni. 

Preparing for a Campaigtt — Wide Authority — The Mas- 
sacre of the Raisin — A Navy for the Lakes — Siege of 
Fort Meigs — The Battle of Lake Erie — The Battle of 
the Thames — Death of Tecumseh — Harrison Retnoved 
from Command 87 



CHAPTER IX. 

General Harrison's Resigttation — Indian Commissio7ter 
Once More — A Medal of Honor — Member of Congress 
— State Senator — Presidential Elector — United States 
Senator — Minister to Colo7nbia — Removed by General 
fackson — Clerk of Common Pleas — President — The 
End. loi 



JOHN TYLER. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Tyler Family — Birth of fohn Tyler — Early Educa- 
tion — Admitted to the Bar — Sent to the State Legisla- 
ture — Elected to Congress — Old- Time Politics 



CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER II. 



PAGE 



The Political Situation— State Rights and Strict Con- 
struction— Adams and Jackson— John Tyler Governor 
oj Virginia — United States Senator — Webster and 
Hayne— Nullification— Tyler' s Vote against the Force 
Bill— Re-elected. ^3 



CHAPTER III. 

Tyler against Jackson— Acting ivith Whig Leaders— 
The Expungi7ig Resolutions— Resigning his Seat in the 
Senate — Elected Vice-President — Death oJ General 
Harrison— Tyler's Position as President of the United 
States 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 



CHAPTER I. 



36 



CHAPTER IV. 

Separation of Mr. Tyler from the Whig Party— Vetoes 
of Party Measures— Changes in the Cabinet— Calhoun 
Secretary of State— Texan Annexatioti—Polk Elected 
—Retirement of Mr. Tyler— The Peace Convention— 
The End 49 



The Pollock Family— Birth of James Knox Polk— Mov- 
ing to Tennessee — Life in the Backwoods— Hungry for 
Brooks— Clerk in a Cou?itry Store— At School at Last- 
Graduated frojn the U7iiversity I 

CHAPTER II. 

Studying Law — Felix Grundy— Young Tennessee and 
Andrew Jackson— Polk Admitted to the Bar — Elected 
to the Legislature— Marriage— The Jackson Campaign 
— A Member of Congress 11 



Vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

PAGE 

The Texas Annexation Question — Election of President 
Jackson — The Bank War — Mr. Polk and Judge White 
— Defence of the President's Veto of the Turnpike Bill. 20 

CHAPTER IV. 

Mr. Polk a Leader — Chairman of the Committee of Ways 
and Means — Speaker of the House of Representatives — 
The Reinoval of the Deposits from the Bank of the 
United States 31 

CHAPTER V. 

The Van Bttren Campaign — Texan Independence — The 
Anti-Slavery Movement — The Panic of 1837 — Mr. Polk 
Thanked by the House — Close of his Career in Congress. 41 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Polk Governor of Tennessee — Rise of the Whig 
Party — President Harrison — Defeat of Mr. Polk for 
Governor — Tylers Admi7iistration — James K. Polk 
Elected President of the United States 5° 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mexican Treaties afid Texan Independence — James Kftox 
Polk President of the United States — The Oregon 
Question — Position of Parties — General Taylor s Army 
at Corpus Christi. 64 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Oregon Boundary — Fifty-four Forty or Fight — Bat- 
tles in Texas — Taylor Crossing the Rio Grande — Plans 
of the Administration — The Wilmot Proviso 74 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Wilmot Proviso Again — General Scott and his Plans 
— Buena Vista — Scott's March to the City of Mexico — 
The Treaty of Peace — Election of President Taylor — 
Death of Mr. Polk 85 



Lives of the Preside?its of the United States. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

NINTH PRESIDENT. 



By WILLIAM O. STODDARD. 



CHAPTER I. 

A Patriotic Ancestry — Boyhood in Stirring Times — 
Goiitg to College — Studying Medicine — Stories of 
the Indian Wars — Deciding to be a Soldier — Com- 
missioned by President Washington. 

In the notable year 1774 the Virginia House of 
Burgesses took upon itself the character of a State 
Convention and elected seven delegates to the Con- 
tinental Congress. This body of patriotic legis- 
lators was to meet in Philadelphia, and was to do a 
great deal more and better work than anybody 
dreamed of beforehand. Thomas Jefferson knew 
all the Virginia delegates, and said of them that 
they had been selected remarkably well. They 
were representative men, he said, and not one of 
them was a more perfect representative of the peo- 
ple than was big, burly, bluff Ben Harrison. He 
was a planter in moderate circumstances, his planta- 



2 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

tion being at a place called Berkeley, on the James 
River, in Charles City County, about twenty-five 
miles below Richmond. He was a brother-in-law 
of Peyton Randolph, who was made first President 
of Congress, and he was related by marriage and 
otherwise to several of the leading families of the 
Virginia colony. Ben Harrison was no royalist or 
aristocrat, however, for he was a direct descendant 
of brave Colonel Harrison, a distinguished officer of 
the army which Oliver Cromwell led for the Parlia- 
ment and against the King. It had been very nat- 
ural that when Benjamin, not yet twenty-one, was 
sent to the House of Burgesses, he should at once 
begin to distinguish himself by a course of out- 
spoken colonial patriotism which resulted in his 
becoming Speaker of the House, and afterward in 
his going to the rebel Congress as one of its most 
zealous members. He very narrowly missed being 
made President of Congress when Peyton Randolph 
died, but he insisted upon withdrawing in favor of 
John Hancock, of Massachusetts, in order to pro- 
mote harmony between the Northern and Southern 
delegates. By his exertions Hancock was unan- 
imously elected, but he, with a very reasonable 
diffidence, hesitated about accepting the difficult 
and dangerous eminence thrust upon him. Ben 
Harrison settled the matter by picking up the new 
President in his own brawny arms and placing him 
bodily in the chair of office, remarking : 

"We will show Mother Britain how little we care for her by 
making a Massachusetts man our President, whom she has ex- 
cluded from pardon by public proclamation." 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 3 

There are many anecdotes extant illustrating the 
character of Ben Harrison, and the high esteem in 
which he was held by the best men of his country. 
His children were almost sure to inherit, with his 
good name, strong characteristics of head and heart. 
His third and youngest son, William Henry Har- 
rison, born at Berkeley, February 9th, 1773, was 
but a baby in the cradle when the Continental Con- 
gress met. Little William was three years old, 
however, when his father, on June loth, 1776, as 
Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, reported 
to Congress the resolution declaring the indepen- 
dence of the British colonies. 

Those were stirring days for the country people 
of the Old Dominion. From the Western frontier 
came terrible tales, season after season, concerning 
the murderous doings of the savages. From the 
Carolinas and Georgia floated up endless rumors 
and reports of the wavering struggle there, which 
seemed to end at last in defeat for the cause of 
liberty. From the North, more frequently and more 
authentically came tidings of the long and seem- 
ingly disastrous campaigns of Washington's army. 
The Virginia coast was threatened continually by 
hovering fleets and cruisers, but no very serious 
damage was done, after the burning of Norfolk, in 
1775, until the closing weeks of the year 1780. 
With the first days of the new year, January 3d, 
1781, Benedict Arnold landed his raiders at West- 
over, only a short ride from Berkeley, and all the 
James River plantations were in peril. More Brit- 
ish and more Hessians arrived a little later, and 



4 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

there were larger fleets along the coast, while the 
army under Lord Cornwallis came pouring north- 
ward over the Carolina border to coop itself up in 
Yorktown and be captured by General Washington. 

During all the years of the war, and even later, 
there were many privations to be endured by all 
Americans. Foreign importations were practically 
cut off, only the very rich being able to pay for the 
few costly luxuries which escaped the British block- 
ade. Such families as that of patriotic Ben Harri- 
son were also continually called upon to deny them- 
selves in every possible manner, that they might give 
to the cause of independence. Whatever and who- 
ever were the other teachers of William Henry 
Harrison's boyhood, there were great lessons to be 
learned in such a school of patriotism and self-sacri- 
fice, and he learned them well, as he was yet to 
prove. 

There were books at Berkeley, and there were 
competent instructors in its neighborhood. So 
good a use was made of them by the boy-patriot 
that he was prepared for college at a very early age. 
There is no perfect record of the precise date of his 
entrance at Hampden-Sidney College nor of the 
length of his stay. That he had been a studious 
lad and was now regarded as somewhat bookish is 
well attested. When he afterward turned his atten- 
tion to the study of medicine, his father's friends 
and his own declared the choice eminently fitting, 
not only on account of the student's marked ability, 
but by reason of his great natural kindness and gen- 
tlener.s of character. There was nothing in his ap- 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 5 

pearance which suggested that he had in him the 
material for one of the most successful Indian 
fighters of the American frontier. He was but six- 
teen when Washington became President, in 1789, 
but it was a time when the very few educated young 
men of the new Republic matured early. On the 
death of his father he had been placed under the 
guardianship of Robert Morris, the celebrated finan- 
cier, who had high hope for his bright young ward's 
success in the medical profession. 

There was a change in course of preparation, 
however. All the years of young Harrison's life 
had made him familiar with tales of Indian warfare, 
but the terrible record now grew darker. The peace 
with England, formally declared in 1783, was of a 
sadly imperfect nature. On land or sea it was at 
times but little better than a condition of mitigated 
hostilities, sure to lead at last to an open rupture. 
Along the Northern frontier and the shores of the 
great lakes the British retained possession of several 
fortified posts within the territory of the United 
States. They had no sufficient pretext for holding 
these places, but one important reason for so doing 
was that each was a centre of profitable trade with 
the red men and of influence over them. By means 
of the garrisons and of agencies employed through 
their commanders and the fur-traders, the old Brit- 
ish domination over many tribes even increased 
rather than diminished. It was for the interest of 
the British fur trade that a state of hostilities, which 
British agents had created during the war for inde- 
pendence, should continue indefinitely after the 



6 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

separate national existence of the United States had 
been acknowledged. 

The savage tribes claimed also to be independent 
nations, and had but a faint perception of the politi- 
cal idea that they lived inside of another nation. 
They listened readily to traders and agents who 
brought presents from the British power, to which 
they had so long been friendly. On the other hand, 
the treaties which they from time to time entered 
into with the United States " Long Knives" were 
quickly rendered worthless by the fact that a sort 
of retaliatory frontier war went on almost without 
intermission. The state of affairs grew worse and 
worse. The western borders of Pennsylvania and 
the new settlements in what is now Ohio suffered 
direful ravages. It was estimated that between the 
peace in 1783 and the beginning of the year 1791, 
not less than two thousand horses were stolen by 
the Indian raiders, and fifteen hundred men, women, 
and children were murdered or carried captives into 
the wilderness. 

The Northern Indian tribes most dreaded at this 
period were the Six Nations,- in New York and 
beyond, who, with the Delawares, in Ohio, were 
sometimes fairly peaceable ; the Hurons, or Wyan- 
dots, along the southern shore of Lake Erie ; the 
Shawnees, who occupied Northern Ohio ; and the 
Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottawattamies, of what is 
now Michigan. Other tribes were heard of from 
time to time, however, and the state of affairs was 
almost as bad in the regions south of the Ohio as it 
was in the Northwestern Territory itself. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 7 

No census was ever taken of these Indians, but 
their warriors were known to number several thou- 
sands, led by capable chiefs, and well supplied with 
arms and ammunition by the British traders. One 
of the first duties of Washington's administration 
was to make an effort for the protection of the fron- 
tier. The effort was made, but resulted in a suc- 
cession of military disasters, which increased the 
pride and arrogance of the savages, while it im- 
pressed upon most white men an exaggerated esti- 
mate of the number and prowess of the men of the 
woods. It was not easy to obtain recruits for the 
army because of the general dread of service upon 
the frontier. The tide of westward progress threat- 
ened to cease or at least to suffer a prolonged and 
injurious check. 

The effect of all this terrible news was very re- 
markable upon the mind of the mild-mannered 
medical student, for he shortly announced his de- 
termination to enter the army. Mr. Morris opposed 
the unlooked-for change of purpose with much per- 
sistency, and went to consult the President as to the 
best means of counteracting it. So promising a 
young doctor ought not to be sent out, he said, to 
lose his scalp in the backwoods. George Washing- 
ton thought differently. He was himself one of the 
best Indian fighters in the country, and was a capital 
judge of the kind of men required for that peculiar 
service. He had been a lifelong friend of Ben Har- 
rison, and understood the sterling patriotism which 
bade the son of such a man volunteer for perilous 
duty. He overruled the objections of the great 



8 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

banker, and, in April, 1791, he caused a commission 
to be issued to William Henry Harrison as Ensign 
in the First Regiment, United States Artillery. 
This command was at that date stationed at Fort 
Washington, in the heart of the Indian country, on 
the site of the present city of Cincinnati. 



CHAPTER II. 

A Boy -Officer — St. Clair s Defeat — A Trip through 
the Woods — Public Despondency — The Legion of the 
United States — Mad A ?itho7ty — Harrison s Temper- 
ance Lecturers — The Indian War. 

It is not easy to estimate correctly the change in- 
volved, in the year 1791, in abandoning the quiet 
career of a physician for that of a soldier in the Ohio 
River country. All the friends and connections of 
young Harrison — George Washington, apparently, 
alone excepted — had urged him strenuously to give 
up his wildly romantic notion. Even the slender- 
ness and seeming delicacy of his bodily frame were 
urged against him, but his will was immovably fixed, 
although his natural modesty was little short of ex- 
cessive diffidence. He joined his regiment at Fort 
Washington early in the autumn of 1791, and it was 
not long before one of General St. Clair's veterans 
wrote home concerning him : 

" I would as soon have thought of putting my wife into the army 
as this boy, but I have been out with him, and I find that those 
smooth cheeks are on a wise head and that slight form is almost as 
tough as my own weather-beaten carcass." 

There had been no effeminating influences in the 
life of a Virginia planter's son during the trying, 
stirring years which began with 1773. Every occu- 



lO WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

pation and recreation out of doors, and the current 
of news and of conversation, had been of a kind to 
strengthen any healthy, bodily and mental, constitu- 
tion, and the young ensign had kept himself singu- 
larly free from bad habits of every description. 

The Western army, at the time of his receiving 
his commission, was under the command of General 
St. Clair, a Revolutionary veteran of high reputation, 
to whom Washington had entrusted the important 
undertaking of inflicting merited chastisement upon 
the defiant tribes of the Ohio country. What was 
then deemed a considerable force had been given 
him, and with it the most urgent instructions to 
" guard against surprise." On November 1st, 1791, 
however, he and his army suffered both surprise and 
defeat, nearly six hundred men and officers perish- 
ing, and one of Harrison's first lessons concerning 
the true nature of the military career he had chosen 
was received when the shattered remnants of the 
routed army came straggling into Fort Washington. 

His first duties were those of garrison life in an 
enemy's country, and were calculated to impress 
upon him lessons of watchfulness ; but before long 
he was ordered to command the escort of a train of 
pack-horses on a perilous journey of thirty miles 
through the wilderness to Fort Hamilton. Trust- 
worthy officers must indeed have been scarce when 
such a duty could have been assigned to one so 
young and so lacking in experience, but it was per- 
formed in a manner which drew upon him the 
notice of the general who was appointee to com- 
mand the army in place of St. Clair. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. Ii 

The defeat and massacre of the force from which 
so much had been expected deepened the feeling of 
horror with which the whole nation regarded the 
war with the Indians. Newspaper writers and even 
legislators declared that it was a mere waste of men 
and money to send troops to be butchered in the 
woods. There were sharp expressions of dissatis- 
faction with the administration and with its man- 
agement of affairs upon the frontier. 

No other man had felt more intensely the disaster 
to St. Clair than had Washington himself, and he 
determined that its evil effects should be thoroughly 
remedied. It was necessary to organize a new and 
stronger army and to plan a more extended cam- 
paign. The new force received the name of the 
Legion of the United States, and consisted of five 
thousand one hundred and twenty non-commis- 
sioned ofificers and privates, with suitable staff and 
line officers. The whole was divided into four sub- 
legions, under four brigadier-generals, with Major- 
General Anthony Wayne in chief command. There 
were those who questioned the safety of any men 
commanded by Mad Anthony Wayne, and they 
were partly right ; but Washington, with better 
knowledge of him, questioned still more the safety 
of any men, white or red, who might be opposed to 
him. He was really a very prudent as well as very ||j!l 

impetuous leader. 

General Wayne received his instructions from the 
President, through the Secretary of War, May 2d, 
1792, with the assurance that "another defeat 
would be inexpressibly ruinous. ' ' In order to avoid 



12 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

disaster, it was necessary to organize success and to 
turn bodies of uncommonly raw and timid recruits 
into soldiers. All sorts of fellows brought up in the 
older settlements were to be prepared for the duty 
of facing warriors thoroughly trained in forest war- 
fare, accustomed to win victories, and sure to be 
well armed and well commanded. The army ren- 
dezvoused at Pittsburg in the Summer of 1792, and 
General Wayne toiled incessantly for the perfection 
of its organization, drill, and discipline. The men, 
even after gathering in the camp of instruction, were 
so infected with dread of the Indians that desertions 
were numerous, and sentries would abandon their 
posts upon purely imaginary alarms. Wayne took 
a wise course for increasing their confidence in 
themselves, for he made each company a school of 
rifle practice and of instruction in all the arts and 
wiles of savage warfare. At the same time, it was 
important to Ensign Harrison that he was to see his 
first fighting under a general who taught his cavalry 
to rely upon the sabre and his infantry to trust the 
bayonet, determining to meet the enemy hand to 
hand. 

The army wintered at a fortified camp, called 
Legionville, twenty-two miles below Pittsburg, and 
when Spring returned the raw recruits had become 
accustomed to the use of arms, had acquired confi- 
dence in themselves, and were ready for active ser- 
vice. On April 30th, 1793, the camp was aban- 
doned, and the entire force went down the Ohio 
River in boats to Fort Washington. The enemy 
had been within striking distance of them all winter, 




rORTRAIT OF JOHN TYLER. 



/ 




PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 13 

but there had been no fighting of any importance, 
and now all that part of the Legion of the United 
States under Wayne's immediate command was 
ordered into the woods to find the Indians. 

Already, in 1792, Ensign Harrison's uniform good 
conduct had procured his promotion to the rank of 
lieutenant, and he had ceased to be regarded as a 
mere boy. He had, moreover, learned one impor- 
tant lesson of life which was more than military and 
which made its good mark upon his whole career. 
He had been advised by Washington himself, his 
father's friend, against the prevailing vice of intem- 
perance. General Wayne had repeated the good 
counsel. In camp and fort there had been only too 
sad and disgusting a succession of object lessons to 
enforce the warnings of the Father of his Country 
and of wise Mad Anthony. Drunken ofHcers, 
drunken soldiers, and drunken Indians joined in 
convincing Harrison of the danger of beginning to 
drink. He therefore determined never to begin, 
and maintained his character for perfect sobriety in 
spite of all temptations. There was solid strength 
of principle in the boy-officer who could do that in 
the hard-drinking days of the old frontier wars. 

General Wayne had not spent all of his time with 
his men at Pittsburg or at Legionville. In March, 
1792, he had held a great council at Fort Washing- 
ton with the chiefs of the Six Nations, headed by 
Cornplanter, and with some chiefs of other tribes. 
The red men had arrogantly demanded that the 
Ohio River should be a boundary line beyond which 
the white men should not come. They claimed all 



14 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

the land beyond that barrier, and it was impossible 
for the United States Government to acknowledge 
their shadowy, uncertain ownership. During the 
Summer of that year another council was held, at 
Sandusky, with no better results, for the demands 
of the Indians grew rather than diminished, in spite 
of the efforts of some of their wiser chiefs. 

While Wayne did his best to obtain peace with- 
out fighting, he was getting his force into good con- 
dition for rapid movements, and his younger officers 
had work to do which kept them in daily training 
for the sharp campaign before them. In July about 
a thousand mounted volunteers came up from Ken- 
tucky. They were men of the kind that afterward 
followed Andrew Jackson through the Creek and 
Seminole War, and were a capital re-enforcement. 
In October General Wayne advanced about eighty 
miles along the southwestern branch of the Miami 
River and fortified a camp which he called Green- 
ville. All the while there were opportunities for 
hard service and exposure, but no diaries were kept, 
and the skirmishes and individual adventures are 
almost altogether unrecorded. On December 23d, 
1793, in midwinter, a strong detachment of infantry 
and artillery was sent to occupy the ground upon 
which St. Clair had been defeated, and Lieutenant 
Harrison joined the expedition as a volunteer. 
There was no fighting, but the bones of the dead 
were buried, the cannon abandoned by the routed 
army were recovered, and a fort was built which re- 
ceived the name of Fort Recovery. In the general 
order of thanks for the excellent manner in which 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 15 

SO perilous a duty had been performed, Lieutenant 
Harrison received especial mention. 

The Kentucky volunteers went home because 
there seemed no prospect of any fighting for them 
to do that season, and the Indians were evidently 
unprepared to cope at once with so strong a column 
as that under Wayne. They were watching it 
closely, however, and now and then found an op- 
portunity to make themselves felt. For instance, 
one detachment escorting a provision train was at- 
tacked so suddenly that two officers and thirteen 
men were killed at the outset, and the remainder 
escaped only by hard running. 

There were other skirmishes here and there and 
constant alarms among the border settlements, in 
testimony that the hostile chiefs had no thought of 
peace or of surrendering their claim to the disputed 
hunting-grounds. Through the Spring of 1794 they 
continued to prepare themselves, stimulated and 
aided by the white enemies of the United States in 
every British fort and trading station along the 
Northern frontier. On June 30th, 1794, a combined 
force of about fifteen hundred Indians, British, and 
Canadians made an attack upon Fort Recovery, but 
were repulsed with loss. All the while, neverthe- 
less, the formerly harassed American border enjoyed 
increasing security. Settlements grew in the rear 
of Wayne's army. His forts and fortified camps 
became centres of trade and of future population. 
The army acquired an almost unbounded confidence 
in their leader, and a general acquaintance also with 
their regimental officers and with each other. This 



1 6 WILLIAM HENRY HA R A' I SON. 

fact became of political importance in after years, 
for nine men out of every ten who served under 
Wayne became settlers upon the lands they rescued 
from the savages. When the time came for veteran 
soldiers to vote as citizens, they knew very well how 
to select their civil leaders from among their old 
military commanders. 



CHAPTER III. 

A Forward Movement — Battle of the Miami — Study- 
ing the Indians — Captain Harrison — In Command 
of Fort Washington — Marriage — Death of Waytie 
— Harrison Secretary of Northwestern Territory — 
Delegate to Congress. 

In July, 1794, the mounted riflemen of Kentucky- 
came again to re-enforce the Legion of the United 
States. General Wayne decided that the time had 
arrived for his long-intended dash. He made a 
swift march of seventy miles to Grand Glaise, and 
built Fort Defiance at the confluence of the Miami 
of the Lakes with the Auglaize. 

The red warriors were gathering fast in this 
vicinity, with the British post and garrison of De- 
troit as their military base of operations. It is a 
well-established fact that when the time came for 
Wayne to strike his blow he found Canadian militia 
acting with the Indians, but it is probable that the 
uniforms worn by the two kinds of warriors were 
much alike. At all events, his forward movement 
discovered the enemy, about two thousand strong, 
waiting for him in a well-chosen position behind 
timber, very near Detroit. The battle of the Miami 
followed. It was fought August 20th, 1794, and it 
was won in a manner peculiarly belonging to the 
genius of General Wayne. The lurking savages had 



1 8 WILLIAM HENRY IIAKRISOM. 

no opportunity to employ their customary tactics. 
They were charged upon in their coverts with what 
seemed reckless rashness, and were bayoneted or 
scattered in a fashion entirely new to them. The 
victory was won swiftly and thoroughly, and a last- 
ing lesson was given to the warriors and chiefs who 
had so haughtily refused all terms of peace. 

The part taken by Harrison in the battle of the 
Miami offers the first clear indication of the estima- 
tion in which he was held as an ofificer. It is almost 
sure that Washington asked Wayne to keep an eye 
upon the son of Ben Harrison, but it is yet more 
certain that stern old Anthony was not a man to be 
guilty of favoritism. It was because of capacity and 
good conduct, therefore, that Lieutenant Harrison 
had been chosen as one of the General's aides. In 
the battle of the Miami he was under constant and 
great exposure, and won the marked approbation of 
General Wayne, who said of him in despatches to 
the War Department : 

" My faithful and gallant aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Harrison, 
rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders 
in every direction, and by his conduct and bravery exciting the 
troops to press for victory." 

That was high praise to be earned in so hot a 
fight by a young fellow of twenty-one who had been 
deemed of so gentle and retiring a nature as to be 
fitted only for a very mild-mannered physician. It 
was afterward discovered that the men themselves 
agreed with the General, and had formed an excel- 
lent opinion of the dashing aide-de-camp. 



WILLIAM IIENKY HARRISON. ig 

With the battle of the Miami Lieutenant Harrison 
may fairly be said to have finished his apprentice- 
ship in frontier warfare. He had assisted in build- 
ing forts of the rough patterns called for in repelling 
savages, and had seen a great deal of watchful garri- 
son duty. He had led small escort parties of men 
upon perilous expeditions through forests infested 
by the enemy. He had toiled with his commander 
in the drill and discipline of raw recruits, obtaining 
much military knowledge for his own future uses 
while teaching others. He had learned the methods 
and the difficulties of moving and supplying troops 
in the wilderness. Now, at last, under the eyes of 
General Wayne, he had distinguished himself in a 
hot engagement of great importance. He had fully 
justified his instinctive choice of a career, as well as 
the opinion formed of him by Washington. 

Hardly was the battle over before an opportunity 
was given to General Wayne for something ap- 
proaching statesmanship. Had he been the hot- 
headed, reckless soldier so many deemed him, he 
would surely have come to an open collision with 
the unwise British commander of the fort at Detroit. 
If he had been unduly elated by the victory he had 
gained, he might even have been tempted to capture 
the post, and all the current diplomacy between the 
United States and Great Britain would thereby have 
been thrown into disastrous confusion. The Gen- 
eral kept his temper, behaving with commendable 
firmness and moderation, and at the same time his 
aide-de-camp was given a fine opportunity to study 
the Northern boundary question. 



20 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

The beaten red men disappeared in the wilder- 
ness, a large part of their force engaged in the battle 
escaping into British territory, and there was no 
more heavy fighting during the year 1794. On the 
first day of the new year, 1795, the several tribes 
began negotiations for peace, and a treaty was 
soon afterward concluded at Greenville, by which a 
vast tract of the territory they had fought for was 
forever relinquished to the United States. It was 
part of the region of country which at no distant 
day was to have William Henry Harrison for its 
first civil magistrate and ruler, but his share in the 
ceremonies and discussions relating to the making 
of the treaty was altogether that of a thoughtful 
subordinate. Still, from his position upon the staff 
of the commanding general and with his advantages 
of early political training, he must have acquired at 
this time much of the intimate knowledge of all the 
negotiations, agreements, and transfers made on 
either side which he afterward displayed and which 
were on many occasions of so great a value to the 
country. 

Now, as in all the previous and subsequent con- 
ferences between General Wayne and the tribes, 
year after year, in fort or camp, chiefs and dis- 
tinguished warriors came and went at their will, 
and in after years it was discovered that they had 
been carefully studied and their character wonder- 
fully well understood by the young officer who 
assisted in receiving them at headquarters. He 
formed acquaintanceships and even friendships 
among them, winning their esteem in a manner 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 2i 

which afterward rendered him the best Indian Com- 
missioner ever sent out by the United States Gov- 
ernment. 

So thoughtful and inteUigent a devotion to duty 
was by no means as common as it should have been. 
It was sufficiently rare to continually attract especial 
attention on the part of watchful superiors. With 
the close of the campaign the lieutenant received 
his next step, and became a captain of artillery, and 
with the promotion came a combination of duties 
hardly consistent with the present rules of the ser- 
vice. General Wayne retained him as a member 
of his own staff at the same time that he placed him 
in command of the important post of Fort Wash- 
ington. 

There was one peculiar addition to the responsi- 
bilities of Captain Harrison, for he received orders 
to watch and report all movements in what was then 
Spanish Louisiana, the vast, almost unknown 
Southwest and West, which the men of Tennessee 
and Kentucky were also watching, almost rifle in 
hand. 

By what was known as the Jay Treaty, con- 
cluded in 1794 between the United States and Great 
Britain, the latter surrendered its obnoxious posses- 
sion of its forts upon American soil. The duty of 
receiving and occupying the several posts was 
assigned by General Wayne to Captain Harrison, 
and was performed satisfactorily. The Indian 
tribes obtained from the fact of this transfer a lesson 
very nearly as important as that which had been 
given them at the Miami by the bayonets of the 



22 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: 

Legion and the rifles of the Kentucky volunteers. 
They learned that the " Long Knives, ' ' as they called 
the United States settlers, had come to stay, and 
that the English had given up any purpose of pre- 
venting their coining. All the hurtful fictions of 
the jealous Canadian fur-traders were at once de- 
stroyed, and there seemed likely to be less difficulty 
in keeping the peace of the frontier. 

The hne of border settlements, however, was no 
longer where it had been, and the Indians sullenly 
noted that the lands they had resigned were rapidly 
ceasing to be hunting-grounds. It was a constant 
cause of irritation to their minds to find more cabins 
and clearings among the woods season after season, 
for the savage idea of what rights might be conveyed 
by a land-title was necessarily vague. As the forest 
trees should come down and the cornfields widen, 
there would surely come times and places for re- 
newed collisions between the new race and the old. 
Among the other evidences that what might be 
called "the army of peace," as distinguished from 
Wayne's Legion, was making an advance move- 
ment, had been the increasing number of pioneer 
families, women and children, as well as men, who 
braved the perils and hardships of the Western 
wilderness. The young commander of Fort Wash- 
ington was a welcome guest in every home, and in 
one of them he shortly found his part of the great 
romance of human life, for it was not a great while 
after he received his captain's commission before he 
married the daughter of Hon. John Cleves Symmes, 
the founder of the Miami settlement and one of the 



WILLIAM IIENKY HARRISON. 23 

United States judges of the Territory. She was a 
young lady of more than ordinary worth, well fitted 
to be his companion and helpmeet in the long career 
of toilsome usefulness which was now rapidly open- 
ing to him. The high character and position in the 
new community which he had already attained re- 
ceived at once an additional strength, and he had 
allied himself by a new and permanent tie to the 
pioneers of the Western border. 

Another year went by, and the warm friendship 
between the commanding general and his aide-de- 
camp was severed by the death of General Wayne. 
There were many reasons why the army, as at that 
time constituted and managed, offered no adequate 
or assured career. It was subject to altogether too 
many changes at what seemed to be the caprice of 
inconsiderate legislation. Another and more prom- 
ising field invited the universally popular captain of 
artillery. He resigned his military commission, 
and was at once appointed Secretary of the North- 
western Territory, being also, ex-officio, Lieutenant- 
Governor. In the frequent prolonged absences of 
Governor St. Clair he therefore became acting Gov- 
ernor. A wide range of duties devolved upon him, 
the efficient discharge of \yhich called for precisely 
the kind and quality of preparatory schooling which 
he had been giving himself from the day when he 
joined his regiment at Fort Washington. 

No other man had been better situated for be- 
coming personally acquainted with the widely scat- 
tered inhabitants, and few possessed in a higher 
degree the born capacity for winning their good 



24 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

will. Perfect frankness of manner, genuine kind- 
ness of heart, unfailing cheerfulness and readiness 
to extend a helping hand, continued to draw toward 
him the affectionate esteem of all whom his official 
duties brought into communication with him. 

To strangers in a strange land, a land so very- 
rough and so full of all perplexities to new-comers, 
it was of vast importance to find a man in ofifice who 
met them with encouragement and sympathy, and 
whose wide and accurate information enabled him 
to answer almost any question they were troubled 
with. 

In the next year, 1798, the Territory was declared 
entitled, by its increase of population, to a delegate 
in Congress, and when an election was held, in 1799, 
the almost unanimous choice of the voters fell upon 
William Henry Harrison. It was a popular and 
legislative verdict confirming remarkably the good 
opinion of George Washington and Anthony 
Wayne. 

The first delegate of the Northwestern Territory 
took his seat in the Sixth Congress in December, 
1799, at the age of twenty-six years. He was young 
to have attained so marked a distinction. It was 
true that he had been favored by circumstances of 
birth and of friends of official position, but it was 
equally true that he had fairly earned the public 
confidence so emphatically bestowed upon him. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Land Reform — Harrison made Governor of the In- 
diana Territory — Vast Power — Miscellaneous 
Duties — Upper Louisiana Added — The Indians and 
Fire-water — Teciimseh and the Prophet — A Libel 
Suit. 

In the political canvass which led to his election 
to Congress, Harrison had taken a distinct position 
before the people of the Territory. He proposed a 
reform in the laws regulating the disposal of the 
public lands, and the settlers were in perfect accord 
with him. They were poor, and the laws had been 
apparently prepared for the benefit of the rich. It 
was allowable to grant or sell tracts of four thousand 
acres in extent, and moneyed speculators obtaining 
them were able to bar the way of actual settlement, 
improvement, and cultivation. 

Soon after taking his seat the new delegate offered 
and advocated a resolution providing for a com- 
mittee of investigation, with instructions to report 
upon the defects of the land laws. So clearly were 
the existing abuses set forth that the resolution was 
adopted, and the impression made by its author was 
declared in his appointment as chairman of the com- 
mittee. It was the first, and is, perhaps, the only 
instance of such a trust being conferred upon a ter- 
ritorial delegate. Fully prepared beforehand, it 
was not long before he reported a bill which worked 



26 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

a revolution in the management of the pubh"c lands 
of the United States. The entire country west of 
the Pennsylvania border to the shore of the Pacific 
Ocean owes much of its facility of settlement and 
the wise distribution of its area among many, in- 
stead of its absorption by a smaller number of 
owners, to the clear-headed statesmanship of the 
young representative of the Northwestern Territory. 
His bill provided for a reduction in the amount of 
land purchasable in one body to alternate tracts of 
three hundred and twenty acres and one hundred 
and sixty acres each — that is, of half and quarter 
sections not adjoining each other. The interme- 
diate half and quarter sections were duly guarded 
with reference to their falling into the hands of 
actual settlers. The report accompanying the bill 
exhibited marked ability, and brought increased 
reputation to its author. The management of the 
bill before the House of Representatives was left 
entirely in his hands. The entire land speculating 
interest opposed it vigorously, and was, of course, 
able to bring a powerful political combination to 
bear. Harrison proved himself capable of meeting 
them at every point, and his proposed law passed 
the House in its original shape. The battle of the 
speculators was then fought over again in the Sen- 
ate, and Harrison could not be there. After a pro- 
tracted contest there was at last a committee of con- 
ference of the two Houses of Congress, and a com- 
promise between them was agreed upon by which 
alternate whole sections, of six hundred and forty 
acres each, could be sold for cash. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 27 

The importance of the subject under discussion 
and the severity of the protracted legislative contest 
attracted the attention of the entire country, and 
made Harrison's name more widely and favorably 
known than were those of some men who had been 
long in Congress. His next proposition gained him 
even greater popularity, for it was a new law chang- 
ing the manner of dealing with land warrants issued 
to soldiers for military services. He was no dema- 
gogue, but he found himself in the somewhat dra- 
matic position of the " soldier's friend," and not 
many men cared to oppose his measure. It became 
a law almost as a matter of course. 

It was evident that the settlers of the North- 
western Territory had selected the right man to 
represent them, and he was now sure of being con- 
sulted and listened to upon all questions connected 
with Western affairs. At the same time, full ac- 
counts of the manner in which he was discharging 
his trust were sure to be carried to his constituents. 
From settlement to settlement and from cabin to 
cabin went the story of the new land laws and how 
they had been obtained, and all the choppers in the 
backwoods were ready to vote or work for the 
author and advocate of those laws. Their rights 
and interests, even the homes of many, had been at 
stake, and they had been apparently helpless to 
protect themselves. It was a grand thing to find 
that they had been so ably cared for and defended. 
Mr. Harrison's advocacy of the land reform and the 
manner and success with which he had conducted it 
placed him apparently in the front rank of the 



28 WILLIAM HENR Y HARRISON. 

younger politicians of the country. Henry Clay 
and Daniel Webster were each in the bright begin- 
ning of their respective careers, but neither could 
be said to have yet distinguished himself more re- 
markably than had the new Western delegate, the 
former aide-de-camp of General Wayne. Andrew 
Jackson had served a brief but almost silent, point- 
less term in Congress, and had returned to Tennes- 
see to be a judge of the Territorial Supreme Court. 
He seemed to have small prospect of ever becoming 
prominent in national politics, for nobody could 
foretell the Creek War or the battle of New Orleans. 

John Quincy Adams, although but thirty-two 
years of age, was already United States Minister at 
Berlin, after serving a remarkably short apprentice- 
ship in diplomacy ; but he was seemingly removed 
from all opportunity of acquiring home popularity. 
Martin Van Buren was yet a mere boy of seventeen, 
beginning to read law and make small stump- 
speeches in and around Kinderhook, N. Y. 

After taking a careful survey of the lists of prom- 
ising young men, there would have been sound 
reason for saying that not one held in his hands a 
better apparent opportunity for future eminence 
than did Harrison. If he had remained in Congress 
he might still have been kept before the people, and 
his name might have been heard as often in the 
political and legislative contests of the next dozen 
of years as were those of others who became 
founders and leaders of parties and who associated 
their names with the great questions which from 
time to time or continuously stirred up the country. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 29 

It was not to be so, for Mr. Harrison was about 
to be more completely taken out of the general 
political, or, rather, partisan field of action than if 
he had been sent to explore Europe. At the same 
time, he was to be placed where he would surely 
create a new party to some degree independent of 
ordinary party lines, and as completely his own 
personal following as that of Andrew Jackson or 
Henry Clay. 

In the year 1800, while the great political cam- 
paign was in progress which resulted in making 
Thomas Jefferson President, the Northwestern Ter- 
ritory was divided. A region including what is now 
Ohio retained the old name. All the great wilder- 
ness westward and northwestward became the Ter- 
ritory of Indiana. 

Prior to the division there had been a movement 
in favor of making Harrison Governor of the entire 
Northwestern Territory, but he had himself opposed 
it, in favor of the veteran General St. Clair. Now, 
from every settlement of the new Territory of In- 
diana petitions of the people poured in upon Presi- 
dent Adams demanding the appointment of Harri- 
son as their governor, and the appointment was 
duly made just before the close of the President's 
term of office. 

There was no danger of any change by the new 
administration, although the party affiliation of the 
young governor had not been with Thomas Jeffer- 
son. By family tradition, perhaps, and by early 
association and training, rather than by anything 
approaching partisanship, Harrison had been a mild 



so WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

Federalist, so mild that he could afterward deny 
ever having been one at all. Nearly all the officers 
of Washington's army had at one time regarded 
Hamiltonian Federalism as a species of regulation 
duty, even when they took small pains to inquire 
what sort of thing it might be. With many of them 
it stood only for social respectability and for a blind 
enmity to the kind of French Radicalism repre- 
sented by that very dangerous fiddler, Thomas 
Jefferson. It was to President Jefferson's honor 
that he did not look too carefully into old partisan 
affiliations. 

If, however, there might otherwise have been any 
doubt in the matter, the unanimity of the people's 
voice removed all question from the mind of a chief 
magistrate honestly disposed to meet their wishes. 

There was no suggestion of disturbing Mr. Harri- 
son, and the young but really experienced governor 
entered upon the discharge of his duties in the year 
i8or, leaving behind him at Washington a brief but 
notable record of legislative usefulness. 

No adequate idea of Governor Harrison's new 
field of labor can be obtained without consulting a 
map. In all that vast region beyond the boundary 
line of the State of Ohio there were then but three 
considerable settlements. One of these was called 
Clark's Grant, very nearly opposite Louisville, Ken- 
tucky. The next, five hundred miles distant, was 
at Vincennes, on the Wabash, in what is now In- 
diana, and was made the capital of the Territory. 
The third, two hundred miles from Vincennes, was 
the string of French villages along the Mississippi, 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 31 

from Kaskaskia to Cabokia, in what is now Mis- 
souri. 

Immigrants from the Atlantic States were begin- 
ning to venture into the very promising prairie and 
forest lands of the Indiana Territory, but the sav- 
ages still claimed by far the greater part as their 
own, and there were ominous rumors of their pur- 
poses. There v/as, in fact, still a chronic state of 
predatory war with some tribes. The scattered 
white population of permanent residents was largely 
French, well disposed and peaceable, but the Indian 
traders were for the greater part British or Cana- 
dians, full of bitterness against the American ad- 
vancement, which was surely depriving them of 
their trade. There was much to be dreaded, there- 
fore, from their influence among several of the more 
powerful nations of red men. 

Neither the French, the scattered pioneers, nor 
the savages possessed any capacity for representa- 
tive self-government. Very wisely the United 
States did not force any absurd civic duties upon 
them. They were given a genuine " governor," 
with powers somewhat resembling those of an 
ancient Roman pro-consul. Governor Harrison was 
invested with one of the most extraordinary com- 
missions in the history of the country. It was not 
exceeded by that which afterward grotesquely ap- 
pointed Andrew Jackson to be at the same time 
American Governor and Spanish Captain-General of 
Florida, with a double set of laws. 

The new republican institutions of Indiana Terri- 
tory were to be fostered and developed under auto- 



32 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

cratic power. The people had no voice whatever. 
Governor Harrison was commander of the territorial 
militia. He was also Indian Commissioner, Land 
Commissioner, sole legislator and law-giver. He 
had the power given him to adopt from the laws 
upon the statute-books of any of the States any and 
every law which in his judgment applied to the 
needs of the Territory. He appointed all magis- 
trates and all other civil officers and all militia 
officers below the grade of general. It was his duty, 
and he was given authority to divide the country 
into counties and townships. He held the pardon- 
ing power. He was made judge of the merits of 
existing land grants, of which many were techni- 
cally or otherwise defective. His decision as to 
these was made final, and his signature upon a title 
was a cure of all defects. With reference to all the 
Indian tribes, he was made the general agent and 
representative of the United States, in charge of 
treaties and treaty payments, and his correspond- 
ence with the Government at Washington relating 
to the vast mass of Indian affairs involved became 
one of the onerous burdens of his position. 

On the acquisition of Louisiana, in 1803, all of 
Upper Louisiana, with dim boundaries except upon 
the east, was added to Governor Harrison's juris- 
diction. How well the toilsome responsibilities had 
been carried out was at the same time witnessed by 
President Jefferson and by Congress. The first 
commissions, issued in 1801, had expired, and when 
new nominations as Governor and as Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs were sent by the President to the 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. ^ 

Senate in 1803, ^^^^ vote of confirmation was prompt 
and unanimous. 

The duties of the latter office involved the dis- 
bursement of large sums of money in annuities, and 
the care and prudence with which that somewhat 
annoying trust was executed may appear from the 
fact that no breath of suspicion ever questioned the 
governor's accounts. At the same time, there were 
continually offered opportunities for the acquisition 
of wealth by judicious investments in land. Many 
of these might have been very properly made, in 
the opinion of upright men, but here appeared one 
of the distinguishing characteristics of Mr. Harrison. 
He was not content with actually being sensitively 
honorable in all relations, public and private. He 
was also keenly, almost morbidly sensitive to public 
opinion relating to his discharge of official duties. 
It was as if he feared to acquire property, lest some 
person should insinuate that he had obtained it by 
reason of advantages given him by his official place 
and power. It was a weakness, if such it can be 
called, which was as rare then as anything like it 
would be now. 

The general administration of the affairs of the 
Territory was taken up by the governor with great 
energy. They involved long and perilous journey- 
ings from place to place, on horseback through the 
woods or in boats, up and down rivers which carried 
more Indian canoes than any other kind of craft. 
Post after post and settlement after settlement re- 
quired visitation, and everywhere a multiplicity of 
knotty questions awaited the arrival and action of 



34 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

the man who gathered in his own hands so very 
many different kinds of power. The relations be- 
tween the settlers and the red men presented an un- 
ceasing problem of great difficulty, for neither could 
be induced to abide by the terms of any treaty or 
by the requirements of the laws borrowed from the 
States. 

Governor Harrison understood Indian character 
remarkably well and had great personal influence 
over many chiefs and warriors, as well as over the 
sturdy white pioneers. There was one element, 
however, common to all the tribes, a sort of savage 
patriotism, with which he could do little or nothing, 
and it was all the while fretting itself into a state of 
haughty discontent. It included, in each tribe and 
sub-tribe, the more fiery and warlike spirits, young 
braves like Tecumseh or his brother, Olliwachica, 
and the other scourges of the Kentucky border. In 
many respects this class of Indians, avowedly the 
implacable enemies of all palefaces, were the best of 
the Indians. They kept alive the ancient traditions 
and patriotic spirit of their people, and strove to 
prevent them from imitating and being ruined by 
the infectious vices of the white invaders. In this 
latter direction they had the strong sympathy and 
cordial co-operation of Governor Harrison. There 
was not a great deal that he could do, at first, to 
assist the few right-minded chiefs who were striving 
to check the ravages of intemperance, but he did all 
in his power. He labored hard all the while for the 
acquisition of a permanent state of peace, and the 
Indian traditions in his way, as strong almost as 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 35 

religious belief, can best be illustrated by quoting 
the language of a Shawnee chief in a speech ad- 
dressed to Governor Harrison at a great council 
held at Fort Wayne, in 1803. The points of the 
treaty proposed and under discussion included the 
confirmation of existing treaties and transfers of 
land. The chief said, as translated by the inter- 
preter : 

" The Master of Life was himself an Indian. He made the 
Shawnees before any others of the human race. They sprang 
from his brain. The Master of Life gave them the knowledge 
which he himself possessed. He placed them upon the great isl- 
and, and all the other red people are descended from the Shaw- 
nees. He made the French and English out of his breast. The 
Dutch he made out of his feet. As for your Long Knives kind, he 
made them out of his hands. All those inferior races of men he 
made white and placed them beyond the great lake. 

" The Shawnees were masters of the continent for many ages, 
using the knowledge which they had received from the Great Spirit 
in such a manner as to be pleasing to him and to secure their own 
happiness. In a great length of time, however, they became cor- 
rupt, and the Master of Life told them he would take away from 
them the knowledge they possessed and give it to the white people, 
to be restored when, by a return to good principles, they would 
deserve it. 

" Many years after that they saw something white approaching 
their shores. At first they took it for a great bird, but they soon 
found it to be a monstrous canoe, filled with the very people who 
had obtained the knowledge which belonged to the Shawnees ; 
but they usurped their lands also. They pretended, indeed, to 
have purchased the lands, but the very goods they gave for them 
were more the property of the Indians than of the white people, 
because the knowledge which enabled them to manufacture these 
goods actually belonged to the Shawnees. 

These thmgs will now have an end. The Master of Life is about 
to restore to the Shawnees both their knowledge and their rights, 
and he will trample the Long Knives under his feet." 



36 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON". 

The red men believed themselves the superior 
race, and entertained no thought of entirely yield- 
ing to the palefaces and disappearing from the face 
of the land. The manifest fact that they were 
steadily receding was of itself sufficient to embitter 
them, inclining them to look with keen suspicion 
upon every overture for the kind of peace which 
seemed to wither them and strengthen their enemies. 

They went away from every great council with 
narrower hunting-grounds and in a higher state of 
preparation for listening around their own council- 
fires to warlike arguments which made use of their 
traditions in appealing to their pride. 

Treaties were made with tribe after tribe and with 
combinations of tribes, and in all of them Governor 
Harrison proved himself the wise friend of the red 
men while doing his duty as the appointed guardian 
of white interests. There was really no perfect 
peace with any tribe at any time, and his ability as 
a watchful military commander was all the while 
employed to prevent the skirmish line, as the ad- 
vanced settlements might well be called, from be- 
coming a general battle-ground. 

When he first accepted the appointment offered 
him he declared that he would not consent to hold 
office a day longer than his administration should 
prove satisfactory to the people, and in that spirit 
he continued to serve. It was soon noted that he 
took small account of political party membership or 
of personal friendships in making his subordinate 
appointments. Even his enemies received commis- 
sions if they were in his opinion the right men for 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 37 

the public services to be rendered. The vast power 
in his hands was faithfully, toilsomely exercised for 
the development as well as for the protection of the 
chaotic community under his charge. Immigration 
was steadily encouraged by such a policy, so carried 
out, but it was not until 1805 that he was able to 
obtain from Congress a law for the reorganization of 
the Territory. In that year, however, he received 
some relief from the burden he had been carrying. 
Provision was made for an election by the people of 
a territorial Legislature. This body also had the 
authority to name ten men, from whom Congress 
chose five, to act as the Council of the Territory, a 
sort of Upper House. 

Nothing could be brought before the new terri- 
torial Legislature of greater importance than the 
proper management of their relations with the Ind- 
ians, and in his first message the governor gave 
them a clear setting forth of his own views. They 
were urged to begin by the performance of their 
duty, as civilized white men, to the Indians, as 
ignorant savages. The United States law for the 
prevention of the sale of intoxicating liquor to the 
Indians was so defectively drawn as to be very 
nearly useless, and the governor eloquently appealed 
to the Legislature to take the matter up. He set 
before them the degraded condition of the tribes, 
among whom the soulless traders were permitted to 
carry unlimited rum. The poison was literally de- 
stroying them by hundreds, after plunging them in 
utter degradation. It was needful that the hand of 
the law should interfere. 



38 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

Something was done by the Legislature, but not 
nearly enough, in response to the governor's appeal, 
and it seemed to be ahnost equally unavailing that 
in urging temperance upon the red men he had the 
active support of some of their own chiefs. His 
temperance movement, however, was shortly fol- 
lowed by another of a very different and remarkable 
nature, and which had tremendous consequences. 

There were two sons of a Shawnee chief who 
were also half Cherokees, through their mother. 
Their names, Tecumseh and Olliwachica, or Elska- 
watawa, were famous, while yet they were young 
men, for their bloody exploits in feuds with 
other tribes and among the Kentucky and Northern 
settlements. They were pronounced enemies of all 
palefaces, and were opposed to the treaties by which 
the hunting-grounds of their race were surrendered. 
They at last formed a design for a general confeder- 
ation of the Indian tribes to check the westward 
flood of white migration. The league was to in- 
clude all, from the Hurons of the Lakes and the 
other Northern tribes, who v/ere soon to be met in 
the field by Harrison, to the Red Stick Creeks, the 
Choctaws and Cherokees and Seminoles of the 
South, who were to be crushed by General Jackson. 

During the year 1804, as nearly as can be as- 
certained, Olliwachica, " The fire that is moved 
from place to place," began to preach a reformed 
religion, based upon the ancient traditions. He 
had chosen, with deep sagacity, the best means for 
securing unity of action among so many jealous 
clans of savages. He was fully sustained by his 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 39 

eloquent and warlike brother, Tecumseh, but the 
growth of the new movement was slow at first, for 
it demanded genuine reform of life. The Prophet, 
as he called himself, taught that the time was at 
hand for the restoration of the lost power of the red 
men, and that they must return to the manner of 
life enjoined upon them by the Great Spirit, They 
must put away whatever they had learned from the 
white men. They must drink no fire-water. Flint 
and steel must be put away, and the fire must not 
be permitted to go out in their lodges. They must 
dress like their red ancestors, and wear no article 
manufactured by the palefaces. They were to let 
no dogs live, and yet they were never to ill-treat a 
dog, for they were to live at peace among them- 
selves, and were forbidden to strike man or woman 
or child or dog, or to lie or steal. They were not 
even to hurt their Indian enemies, but were to pre- 
serve all their energies for the great purpose of re- 
sisting the encroachments of the Long Knives. 

The new religion met with great opposition at 
the outset, but it was preached with eloquence and 
energy from tribe to tribe. Chiefs who stood in its 
way too offensively were accused by the Prophet of 
witchcraft, and a number of them were murdered or 
disappeared without any account being given of 
where they had gone. 

While all this was going on in the woods of the 
Indiana Territory great political changes had taken 
place in all the Eastern and Southern country. In 
1803 Ohio was admitted as one of the States of the 
Union, while the acquisition of Louisiana acted as 



40 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

a strong stimulus to the tide of immigration, which 
followed the course of the great rivers and seemed 
to shun the shores of the great lakes and the con- 
tinually threatened Canadian border. President 
Jefferson had been re-elected, but the great wave 
of party enthusiasm which carried him was hardly 
felt in the backwoods. The young Republic was 
rapidly extending its treaty relations with European 
powers, but the settlers in their cabins neither knew 
nor cared much about it. Treaties with the tribes 
near them were of much more importance to all 
their known interests, and their hard-working gov- 
ernor was persistently seeking to bring these to 
something like a trustworthy condition. It was 
very remarkable that one man should have suc- 
ceeded in accomplishing so much, at widely sepa- 
rated points, over so vast an area. He did not 
neglect his duties to the newly annexed territory 
beyond the Mississippi. When, in 1805, Upper 
Louisiana was separated from his jurisdiction, the 
citizens of St. Louis presented him with a formal 
vote of thanks for the manner in which he had 
served their interests. The officers of the militia 
organization also declared their satisfaction with 
his course, and the new territorial Legislature, at 
its first session, added its positive expression of 
approval. He had toiled among them with rare 
disinterestedness. When offered what would after- 
ward have been a third part of the city of St. Louis 
as an inducement for employing his official influence 
to build up the infant municipality, he did what he 
honestly could for the local welfare, but refused to 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 41 

accept the proffered reward, although its true char- 
acter was perfectly covered under the form of a 
speculative land operation. His sensitiveness in 
ofificial money transactions went yet further, for he 
refused to accept his lawful fees for issuing licenses 
to trade with the Indians. The amount rejected 
was somewhere between two and three thousand 
dollars, and was a perquisite which had been fairly 
earned by toils, exposures, perils, and by prudent 
administration of the licensing power. 

There had been one good result of such scrupu- 
lous avoidance of all apparent occasion for calumny, 
and up to this time every evil tongue had spared 
him. There came a day, however, in 18 10, when a 
person named Mcintosh ventured to assert that 
Governor Harrison had cheated the Indians in a 
treaty concluded with them at Fort Wayne. An- 
other man might have permitted that solitary de- 
traction to pass unnoticed, but not so the somewhat 
thin-skinned governor. He at once brought suit 
against Mcintosh before the Supreme Court of the 
Territory. There were three judges, and of these 
one left the bench in that case because he was a 
friend of the plaintiff, and another in like manner 
because he was a friend of the defendant. The trial 
began with one judge, but did not go far before the 
defendant's counsel gave it up and confined himself 
to a plea for mitigation of penalty. The jury failed 
to find any cause for mitigation. After an hour of 
deliberation they brought in a verdict for four 
thousand dollars damages, which was large indeed, 
considering the value of such a sum in a new coun- 



42 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: 

try where there was almost no money at all. Judg- 
ment was declared, and the property of Mcintosh 
was sold by the sheriff to satisfy it, but was bought 
in at the sale by an agent of the governor. Two 
thirds of it was at once returned to the penitent 
owner, and the other third was divided among the 
orphans of soldiers who had been killed in battle. 
The governor had protected his honor and had given 
a salutary public lesson upon the evil of groundless 
defamation, but he could not consent to put any 
part of the fine into his own pocket. 



CHAPTER V. 

Indian Treaties — Growth of the New Country — Cor- 
respondence with Tecumseh — The Council at Vin- 
cennes — The Indian View of the Land Question — 
Harrison' s Intrepidity. 

Governor Harrison's first appointment had 
been given him in compliance with petitions from 
the people of the frontier. His successive reap- 
pointments at the end of each term of ofifice came 
to him in like manner by a species of unanimous 
popular election by petition, duly confirmed by the 
President and Senate. His popularity was such as 
simply to remove the idea of successful competition, 
although there were by no means lacking men whose 
ambition led them to covet a post so important and 
authority so great. 

At the present day it would not be easy to find 
in a community of the older States one man who 
could give the names of the governors of the Terri- 
tories of the United States. It was not so in a day 
when the only name such a person was required to 
remember was that of the governor of tJie Territory. 
Throughout the country everywhere the name of 
Governor Harrison had become associated and 
almost identified with territorial affairs and with the 
tangled story of Indian diplomacy. Whenever any 
letter or report of his came before Congress or 



44 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

found its way into the press, it was noticed that his 
style was clear and vigorous, and it was well known 
that he was a gentleman of refined and elevated 
personal character. Although he adopted the sim- 
ple manners and plain way of living of the pioneers 
for whom he was working, the impression given was 
that he carried with him little or none of the rough- 
ness which was supposed to be characteristic of 
Western political leaders. 

While all this was true, and while the well-merited 
reputation was as wide as the nation, there was 
about it something dull and commonplace rather 
than brilliant. 

The roughness of frontier life could be more 
plainly seen than could any of its other features. Its 
perils, its frequent adventures, its combats with and 
victories over wild beasts and wild men had not 
been put into print as yet by any novelist of the 
thousand who have since made border romance 
familiar to the minds of every civilized boy and girl. 
Therefore, although Governor Harrison was under- 
stood to be the right man to talk with Indians or to 
govern a wilderness, the general public had more to 
say about the brilliant statesmen in their own con- 
gressional districts, whose eloquence they had list- 
ened to and whose views upon the tariff and other 
public questions they were well acquainted with. 
Governor Harrison was himself a very good orator, 
and capable of making himself well understood by 
any audience he might address, provided, in the 
case of some of his most important and attentive 
audiences, he had a good interpreter. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 45 

As to these, the great councils of the Indian 
tribes, they were necessarily frequent, for the diffi- 
culties with the red men increased with the yearly 
increase in the number of settlers' cabins. There 
was a bitter spirit growing on both sides, the fruit 
of mutual wrongs and retaliations, and Governor 
Harrison was powerless to prevent either the causes 
or the consequences. His own life was more than 
once in extreme peril in the savage assemblies he 
attended. Only his iron firmness and the deep re- 
spect in which he was held had prevented his being 
tomahawked where he sat. 

In the course of his long administration as Super- 
intendent of Indian Affairs he negotiated no less 
than thirteen important treaties with the tribes. 
The Indian lands transferred are now settled, culti- 
vated, dotted with villages towns, cities. They 
are States of the Union. The business of acquiring 
the vague and shadowy but important titles held by 
the wild hunters involved over eleven years of 
watchfulness and planning, accompanied by frequent 
journeyings and severe exposures. The rigidly con- 
scientious public servant entrusted with the work 
was entitled to extra pay at the rate of six dollars 
per day and his expenses while actually engaged 
upon his duties as commissioner. So carefully did 
he pare away his accounts and separate the several 
kinds of duty and pay that his entire charges for the 
thirteen treaties and their accompanying services 
were only about five thousand dollars. 

Beginning in 1804, the Indian Prophet Olliwa- 
chica and his brother Tecumseh toiled fanatically 



46 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

at their conspiracy, and news of what they were 
doing was from time to time brought to Governor 
Harrison. He had no power to do more than wait 
the result, but he waited watchfully, and he had 
many friends in every tribe who were sure to keep 
him well advised. Some of these were chiefs who 
before long paid the death penalty of witchcraft for 
daring to oppose the plans of Olliwachica. 

The revival of the old traditions and the manner 
of their preaching may be said to have assumed, 
even more than at the beginning, the form of a new 
religion. Probably no new religion was ever 
preached which did not, like this, base itself upon 
something older, and thereby appeal to ideas already 
deeply rooted in the minds of men. 

As for the conspiracy, it was the plan of King 
Philip or of Pontiac upon a wider scale. It was 
evident to any warrior of common-sense that no 
single tribe was capable of contending with the pale- 
faces. From time to time many of their leading 
chiefs and braves had visited the older settlements, 
some going as far as the city of Washington, and 
had brought back very nearly incredible stories of 
the wonders they had seen and heard. In spite of 
all that, however, savage ideas of the relative 
strength of the two peoples were grotesquely erro- 
neous. Only a very few of the whites, they argued, 
were warriors, while every Indian was a great fighter 
as compared with even the soldiers. The corn- 
planting palefaces would all stay at home, and as 
many men in uniform as they might choose to send 
into the woods could be easily destroyed if the Ind- 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 47 

ians would combine and act in unison. There was 
no talk of driving the settlers from their present 
possessions, except at some points where they had 
pushed westward too far, but they must be checked. 
A boundary line must be established beyond which 
neither white men nor their manufactures, particu- 
larly fire-water, should be permitted to pass. 

Tecumseh was widely known as a great warrior, 
and it was easy for him to obtain a hearing by the 
assembled dignitaries of each tribe, to v/hom he 
sent notice that he was about to pay them a visit. 
With or without the company of his brother, he 
met the men of the woods in council, from the 
upper lakes to the heart of what is now Alabama. 
He was an eloquent speaker, and his listeners were 
only too well aware of the truth of much that he 
had to say, whatever of falsehood there might be in 
the remainder. Wherever needful, it was easy to 
cloak any more violent designs under a proposed 
policy of non-intercourse, and the new religion of 
savage simplicity began at last to make its converts 
more rapidly. 

The true nature and sure consequences of such a 
movement among such a people could not fail to be 
understood by a man of Governor Harrison's experi- 
ence and sagacity. The trouble was sure to come 
unless the red chiefs themselves should succeed in 
breaking the influence of the two brothers. Many 
were jealous of it, and many were wise enough to 
see that the proposed league of tribes tended to no 
good. It was owing to their opposition, in part, 
that the schemes of the Prophet matured so slowly, 



48 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

but more, in all probability, to the general inclina- 
tion of the red men to obtain whatever the white 
traders would bring them, especially the rum inter- 
dicted by the preachers. 

The discontented and unbelieving were Governor 
Harrison's spies, and in the year 1807 they brought 
him information which convinced him that the 
Shawnees, at least, were in need of a warning. 
They were preparing for a violent outbreak of some 
sort, and it was an important point gained if their 
plan could be deprived of the element of conceal- 
ment and surprise, altogether essential to Indian 
tactics. Their counsels were reported to the gov- 
ernor so fully that he was able to send to the Shaw- 
nees a message in which he rehearsed the entire 
matter. He reproved them severely for the course 
they were taking, and referred to the Prophet by 
assuring them that " their chiefs were listening to a 
fool who speaks not the words of the Great Spirit, 
but the words of the Devil." 

The Prophet himself dictated to the governor's 
messenger a reply in writing, as follows : 

" Father : I am sorry that you listen to the advice of bad 
birds. You have impeached me with having correspondence with 
the English and with calling and sending for the Indians from 
the most distant parts of the country, ' to listen to a fool who 
speaks not the words of the Great Spirit, but the words of the 
Devil.' 

' ' Father ! These impeachments I deny and say they are not true. 
I never had a word with the English, and I never sent for any In- 
dians. They came here themselves to listen and hear the words 
of the Great Spirit. 

" Father ! I wish you would not listen any more to the voice 
of bad birds, and you may rest assured that it is the least of our 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 49 

ideas to make disturbances ; and we will ratlier try to stop any 
such proceedings than encourage them." 

The threat and peril of savage inroads could not 
be removed from the Indiana settlements by that 
kind of correspondence. No information could yet 
be laid before Congress which would operate as an 
imperative demand for extended action. The 
country considered itself poor, and all its financial 
affairs were conducted upon a scale of the most 
closely watched economy. The naval and military 
establishments were kept at the lowest possible 
mark, and the army was altogether insufficient for 
the protection of the long frontier. No change for 
the better came with the election of James Madison 
to the Presidency, in 1808, for he was one of the 
most unwarlike of statesmen. The new administra- 
tion was but a continuation of the old, and was ap- 
parently well contented to leave Governor Harrison 
and his log-cabin neighbors to take care of them- 
selves. 

So very plainly was this the case that throughout 
the Western country there grew up a strong and 
jealous sense of neglect. There were no railways 
or telegraphs, nor were there good postal facilities. 
The scattered settlements of the Mississippi Valley 
were far away from the towns and cities of the 
Atlantic seaboard. It looked as if a new republic 
were growing up in the wilderness, with a probable 
eastern boundary line suggested by the Alleghany 
Mountain ranges. That a discontented state of 
feeling existed was duly reported by the Eastern 
press. While most people paid it no manner of at- 



50 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

tention, it may be that it entered somewhat into 
the plans of Aaron Burr, whatever may have been 
the true nature of his mysterious conspiracy. The 
idea that the Western settlers were weakening in 
their attachment to the Union must have gone 
across the ocean in an exaggerated form, for, only a 
few years later, during the War of 1812, British 
commanders in the South sent out special procla- 
mations to the people, appealing to them as in some 
manner separated in heart and interest from other 
Americans. Their mistake lay in supposing that a 
set of men who were conscious of a great need for 
more attention to their affairs could be persuaded to 
cut away and receive less. 

The growth and condition of the Western country, 
from year to year, from 1801 to 1813, can be traced 
in the ofificial reports and correspondence of Governor 
Harrison better than in almost any other manner. 
His writings make up a very interesting history. It 
was very much such a history as is at this time 
making in several of our Territories, with the differ- 
ence that there were no mines nor miners in all the 
region that he governed, and that the forest Indians 
of that day fought on foot, from cover to cover, in- 
stead of scouring wide plains on horseback. 

Throughout the year 1809 the governor kept him- 
self well advised of the designs and movements of 
the Shawnee conspirators. He knew that they 
were obtaining adherents in several tribes, but that 
wherever they went they were confronted by the 
strong opposition of the older chiefs and by the yet 
stronger dislike of Indians and squaws for a new 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 51 

doctrine which asked them to give up so very much. 
The Prophet and Tecumseh were greatly aided, on 
the contrary, by the steady encroachments of the 
settlers and by the increasing scarcity of game. 
The wilder spirits were getting excited, and there 
was a growing willingness to make a warlike experi- 
ment and see if the Prophet told the truth in assur- 
ing his followers of acquiring all the knowledge and 
riches of the palefaces in case they would abandon 
their evil ways and obey his teachings. 

The territorial Legislature of Indiana was now in 
regular performance of a large part of the duties 
which had once burdened the governor, but he was 
still something like a viceroy ruling a people who 
were for the greater part in thorough accord with 
him. They were so sure he would do the best he 
knew how for the general good that they were dis- 
posed to let him do very much as he pleased. 

It was a matter of course that he had enemies, 
political and personal, but his even temper and 
ready courtesy prevented his record from being 
marked by any such unpleasant incidents as were 
only too common in the lives of other noted men of 
the Western border, and he was known to be firmly 
opposed, on principle, to the prevailing practice of 
duelling. 

If his relations with the white people were entirely 
satisfactory, moreover, it was largely because they 
believed him the only man who knew precisely what 
to do with the red people. Over the latter his 
nominal authority, as representing the Government 
of the United States, was very full, and his actual 



52 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

power very thin and weak. What there was of the 
latter depended largely upon their personal respect 
for himself, and that was rarely strong enough to 
prevent a war party of young braves from a secretly 
planned raid among the settlements. It was true 
that Olliwachica and Tecumseh professed to dis- 
courage hostilities of all sorts, great or small, but 
the war parties were well understood to be composed 
of those who had accepted the Prophet's doctrine 
of enmity to the whites. 

It grew more and more evident, in the Spring of 
1810, that Governor Harrison must do something 
more than collect information as to what the con- 
spirators were accomplishing. He made a last 
effort on behalf of peace, and he cannot be said to 
have made it with reasonable prudence. A council 
of chiefs was summoned to meet the governor at 
Vincennes on August 12th, 18 10. Word was sent 
to Tecumseh that he must bring no more than thirty 
warriors with him, and the preparations for his re- 
ception were made precisely as if he were expected 
to obey. Even when the Shawnee leader arrived 
in the neighborhood of Vincennes with three hun- 
dred chosen warriors and people generally were 
alarmed, Governor Harrison did not at once take 
any additional military precautions. He sent a 
remonstrance, however, and received for answer 
that the chief feared treachery on the part of the 
palefaces, and had come prepared to protect him- 
self. 

The council was to have been held in the large 
piazza in front of the governor's residence, but 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 53 

Tecumseh refused to come to the house. He left 
the main body of his braves in their camp, but forty 
of them attended him when he presented himself. 
He insisted that the council should be held in a 
grove of trees at a little distance from the piazza, 
and it was a wise enough precaution, whether he 
actually feared treachery or only intended it. He 
said, at the same time, that chairs need be brought 
out only for white men : 

" The earth is the mother of the red men, and they are happy 
to recline upon her bosom." 

The governor gave a dignified assent to the de- 
mands of the haughty savage, took his seat among 
the trees, and opened the council in due form. 
Tecumseh himself was the first speaker, in response 
to the opening remarks of the governor, and said : 

" What I am I have become by my own exertions. I would that 
I could make the red men as great as I picture them when I think 
of the Great Spirit and his wish to render all his people noble and 
happy. Were such the case, I would not come to General Harri- 
son, beseeching him to annul the treaty, but I would say to him, 
' Brother, you are at liberty to return to your own country.' There 
was a time when the foot of the white man did not crush the fallen 
limbs in our paths. This country then belonged to all the red 
men. It was created for the red man and his children. We were 
all united, and the Great Spirit placed us here, and filled the land 
with fruit and game for our use. We were then happy. We are 
now made miserable by the white man, who is never contented, 
but asks us for more and more land. The white people have 
driven us from the great salt lake. They follow us over the mount- 
ains as we retire toward the setting sun. They would force us 
into the lakes, but we are determined to go no further. 

" The march of the white man must be stopped. The Indians 
must insist upon the original compact. The land belongs to all, 
and all must still own it. It vvas our fathers', we must give it to 



54 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

our children. It cannot be divided. We have no right to sell, even 
to each other. How, then, can we sell to strangers? Why should 
we, when they are never satisfied ? The land is ours, and the white 
men have no right to take it from us. The Indians, should they sell, 
can only do so when all the tribes are together and when all con- 
sent. No sale is valid unless made by all. The late sale was 
made only by a few tribes, and is, therefore, nugatory." 

Such was the argument of the great Shawnee 
chief as rendered into English by the interpreter. 
It was probably the same that he had again and 
again uttered in the councils of the tribes when no 
white hearers were present. It cannot be denied 
that it contained a very plausible statement of the 
Indian side of the question, but it was based upon 
fallacies. 

Tecumseh sat down upon the ground, and Gov- 
ernor Harrison arose to reply. He was thoroughly 
familiar with the history of Indian titles and land 
sales, and proceeded to demolish the plea of the red 
orator. In the course of his remarks he said : 

" When the white people arrived on this continent they found 
the Miamis in the occupation of all the country of the Wabash, and 
at that time the Shawnees were residents of Georgia, from which 
they were driven by the Creeks. The lands have been purchased 
from the Miamis, who were the true and original owners of them. 
It is ridiculous to assert that the Indians are one nation, for if such 
had been the intention of the Great Spirit, he would not have put 
six different tongues into their heads, but would have taught them 
all to speak one language." 

The governor went on to defend the particular 
features of the existing treaty and its binding 
authority, and the Indians heard him to the end in 
dignified silence. No sooner, however, did the in- 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 55 

terpreter cease speaking than Tecumseh sprang to 
his feet. 

" It is false !" he shouted, and his warriors also 
sprang up, war-clubs in hand, as if at a preconcerted 
signal. Several times before had Governor Harrison 
been in apparently extreme peril during his inter- 
views with the excitable and reckless children of the 
forest, but never had his life seemed of less value 
than now, even when he had been almost alone 
among them. His official guard of twelve soldiers 
had been stationed among some trees at a little dis- 
tance, and around him were only a few unarmed 
citizens. He put his hand upon his sword, but did 
not draw it and remained seated, retaining an en- 
tirely undisturbed demeanor. His friend Major 
Floyd drew a dirk, and a friendly chief named 
Winnemak cocked a pistol, while the Rev. Mr. 
Winans ran into the house and obtained a rifle. 
The mere squad of soldiers did not flinch, but 
moved forward ready to fire. Tecumseh lost his 
opportunity, for he paused to harangue his braves, 
and both he and they had time to consider the 
matter. The moment his eloquence slackened a 
little the governor spoke again. He coolly told the 
chief that " he was a bad man. There would be 
no further talk with him. He must return to his 
own camp and leave the settlements immediately." 

Harrison's knowledge of Indian character, backed 
by his superb personal courage, had guided him 
correctly, for the chief at once gave up his murder- 
ous intention. He even apologized, and complied 
with the governor's order to return to his camp. 



56 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

Consent was given for another conference upon the 
following day, but there was then no repetition of 
excessive confidence in savage honor, for the coun- 
cil was held in the presence of two full companies of 
riflemen. 

Tecumseh repeated his arguments and demands, 
and was openly sustained by the chiefs of no less 
than five different tribes. They united in requiring 
the restoration of the old boundary line of the 
Indian lands, as it had existed before the treaties 
under discussion were made. 

The question was broadly and definitely presented 
whether or not the red men had a right to prevent 
the white race from occupying and settling the con- 
tinent of North America. If any one saw, nobody 
then plainly declared the manifest absurdity of such 
a claim, and the fundamental right of civilized men 
to redeem all wildernesses for the benefit of the en- 
tire human race was left to be haggled over to the 
present day. 

Governor Harrison told the chiefs that their de- 
mands were inadmissible, but that what they had said 
would be duly reported to the President of the 
United States for his decision. 

Tecumseh again asserted his innocence of any 
violent or treacherous purpose at the first meeting, 
and on the following day the governor visited his 
camp almost alone. It looked as if his personal 
courage had once more carried him beyond the 
boundaries of reasonable prudence, but he knew the 
men with whom he was dealing, and he was really 
more secure without any pretence of an armed 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 57 

guard. He was treated with the utmost respect by 
the chiefs and warriors, and held another long con- 
ference with Tecumseh. 

The governor spoke freely and plainly, by no 
means concealing his opinion of savage require- 
ments or his full knowledge of the mischief in course 
of preparation. The final response of Tecumseh 
was as follows : 

" Well, as the great chief is to determine the matter, 1 hope the 
Great Spirit will put sense enough in his head to induce him to 
direct you to give up the land. It is true he is so far off that he 
will not be injured by the war. He may sit still in his town and 
drink his wine, while you and I have to fight it out." 

He and his warriors and his allies departed, leav- 
ing behind them a clear understanding that existing 
treaties and land titles under them were of small 
value until the power of the Prophet and his brother 
should be broken. What that power might be and 
how many armed warriors they could bring into the 
field, if acting for themselves alone, was much a 
matter of conjecture ; but they and Governor Har- 
rison knew that behind them and co-operating with 
them was a far more dangerous enemy of the young 
Republic. 

The story of Governor Harrison's cool intrepidity 
was a good one to tell among the cabins of the 
settlers. It crossed the mountains and was heard 
among the older neighborhoods all over the land, 
but there were no illustrated journals to seize upon 
it as a fine subject for a picture. The time was to 
come, however, when it would have a political value 
and would influence voters. 



58 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

The purposes of the red men and the condition of 
the Western country were fully and promptly set 
before the Government in the correspondence of 
Governor Harrison. The administration of Presi- 
dent Madison, however, was at that time beset with 
all sorts of difficulties, and was unprepared for a 
vigorous Indian policy. With reference to its for- 
eign affairs, as well as to its frontier disturbances, it 
was forced to drift for a few months more, very 
much as if it hoped for better things from the 
British Ministry or from Olliwachica and Tecumseh. 
There could be no such hope, for the former would 
not give up the right of search, and the latter would 
not surrender the land question. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Condition of the Country — Attitude of Great Britain 
— The War Party — Growing Statesmen — More 
Councils with Tecumseh — Border Warfare — Battle 
of Tippecanoe — The Story of Ben. 

The people of the United States had worked 
their way into a very perplexing state of affairs by 
the beginning of the year 1811. They were hardly 
recognized as a nation by the statesmen of Europe. 
Among these there was a confident expectation, 
while among American patriots there was a great 
fear that the Union of States was too weak a 
bond to hold so large a country together for any 
great length of time. There were no great parties 
in the country, with distinctly declared doctrines 
and plans of national administration. The remains 
of the crushed Federal Party were ready to oppose 
any policy which might be proposed by the Repub- 
lican Party, in control of the Government, but the 
leading men of the latter were at variance among 
themselves, and were not ready to unite in propos- 
ing anything. 

It was a time of great financial distress, in spite 
of the facts that so many new farms were opening, 
that flocks and herds were increasing so fast, and 
that home manufactures were springing into life 
more rapidly than ever before. 



6o WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

There was almost no foreign commerce. More 
than a thousand ships had put to sea on June loth, 
1809, when the repeal of the Embargo seemed to 
set them free, but they had gone out only to find 
that the ocean was not yet a safe place for the 
American flag, and a great part of the too-hasty ad- 
venturers did not again reach American harbors. 

Something like a state of suppressed war existed 
with Great Britain, and even with France, and the 
strongest, most active faction in the United States 
was that which was beginning to clamor for open 
conflict. 

All men were so accustomed to regard Europe as 
in some manner the world, that they placed alto- 
gether too much importance upon the relations of 
their own country with foreign powers. Neverthe- 
less, their national feeling was growing fast, and the 
Union became safer because of the general resent- 
ment against the treatment given to the young Re- 
public by the old monarchies. There were excep- 
tions among these, and several important national 
friendships were beginning to form, like that of 
Russia, but they were not of a sort to be popularly 
understood or appreciated. The pressure exerted 
by Great Britain upon the sea and along the Canada 
border, however, was of a sort which all men could 
be made to feel. Half the population of the country 
lived very near tide-water, while another large part 
lived within reach of possible Indian war parties. 

Spain still owned Florida, and the vast Louisiana 
territory had become American only to such an ex- 
tent that the United States had now a right to navi- 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 6i 

gate the Mississippi, station troops at New Orleans, 
and establish military posts at St. Louis, Natchez, 
and other points along the river. Little was known 
of the regions farther west, and the politicians who 
were watching European affairs hardly dreamed of 
a political future to be controlled by men who were 
then disputing with red men about treaties or 
arguing petty cases in backwoods courts. 

Of these men, three had already attained positions 
the political strength of which only waited oppor- 
tunities for manifestation. Henry Clay had already 
made his mark in Congress, and was the eloquent 
advocate of retaliatory war with England. Andrew 
Jackson, Major-General of the Tennessee Militia, 
may be said to have had under his command, quar- 
tered in their own cabins, the most effective military 
force in the whole country. Upon him was sure to 
fall the direction of coming events in the Southwest. 
William Henry Harrison, governor and commander 
of militia, was the most prominent figure north of 
the Ohio River, but the United States posts along 
the Canadian line were held by regular troops, com- 
manded by officers whose incompetence had not yet 
been discovered. 

Nearly all of the opposition to a war with England 
was to be found among the commercial communities 
of the Atlantic seaboard, particularly in New Eng- 
land and New York. Shipbuilders and merchants 
were almost united in the belief that their interests 
could be protected and their prosperity restored 
without a fight, which must for the time being 
sweep the seas of all the American commerce re- 



62 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

maining. So far as that argument went, they were 
able to make out a strong case, but there were 
greater questions at stake than those of temporary 
profit and loss to the commercial classes. All of 
these questions cannot be treated in a biography 
like this, but there was one of them which had much 
to do with making several Presidents of the United 
States. 

In all the older States there was an important 
element left behind by the war for independence, 
which cherished a more or less bitter feeling against 
England, whether her present conduct might be 
good or bad. No other man represented it more 
perfectly than did Colonel James Monroe of Vir- 
ginia, and he became Secretary of State accordingly, 
in November, 1811. The most earnest demand for 
war, however, did not come from the old soldiers of 
Washington's army, but from the extreme Western 
border. When, not many months later, the Red 
Stick Creeks, in Alabama, declared to General 
Jackson that they were an independent nation, 
bound to maintain their ancient treaty of alliance 
with Great Britain, and when a British commander 
formally called upon them to do so, the cause of the 
Western war feeling was very fairly illustrated. 
The settlers believed that the tribes by whose war 
parties they were harried were incited to hostilities 
by the agents of the British Government. Men 
like Clay and Harrison and Jackson were convinced 
that the British Ministry, looking forward to dissen- 
sions dividing and weakening the colonies, hoped 
for some hour of disaster when the rule broken by 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: 63 

the war of the Revolution might be re-established. 
With this idea and purpose, hardly more than half 
concealed, British influence among the tribes was to 
be continually maintained, and the dissensions be- 
tween the red men and the Americans were to be 
fostered. It was a complaint repeatedly made 
against Tecumseh and the Prophet by Governor 
Harrison that they were in correspondence with the 
British-Canadian authorities, and the course of 
events finally justified his assertion. The designs 
of the British Ministry with reference to the Louisi- 
ana Territory were also brought out into clear light 
by the great invasive expedition which came to an 
end at the battle of New Orleans. 

The popular mind found a close parallel between 
the asserted right of English cruisers to stop and 
search American ships at sea and the other fact 
that British agents meddled with the relations of 
the United States and its wild tribes. If there was 
any great exaggeration in the impression upon the 
minds of the backwoodsmen, nothing was done by 
the British frontier commanders for its removal, and 
it grew stronger and more bitter with the growth of 
Tecumseh's league. He and his brother and their 
new religion were regarded as little better than a 
British skirmish line. 

The foreign pressure exercised upon American 
sea-going interests became worse and worse, until it 
assumed the form of a semi-blockade. Its arrogance 
had been vividly illustrated, in 1807, by the attack 
made by the British frigate Leopard upon the 
American frigate Chesapeake. That had been a 



64 WILLIAM HEiYRY HARRISON. 

humiliating disgrace for which no sufficient repara- 
tion was ever made, and the changed temper of the 
United States was expressed well, in May, 1811, 
when the British sloop-of-war Little Belt was severely 
chastised by the American frigate President. 

The kind of pressure upon the Western and North- 
ern border corresponded in its manners as well as in 
its nature with that brought to bear at sea, and the 
commanders of British frontier posts had as little 
regard for American rights as if they had been so 
many sea captains. All through the Spring and 
Summer of the year 181 1 it became more and more 
manifest to Governor Harrison that Olliwachica 
and Tecumseh were preparing for an extended cam- 
paign, with the Canada frontier and its fortified 
posts as a base of operations. It was well known 
that they had tried to arouse the Creeks, Cherokees, 
Choctaws, and Seminolesof the extreme South, but 
their success was believed to have been imperfect. 
At all events, the existence and the military strength 
of the Kentucky and Tennessee settlements cut the 
savage confederacy in two, and its northern half was 
afterward destroyed before any important rising 
took place at the South. 

In the early Summer of 181 1 news came to Vin- 
cennes that a thousand warriors, many of them from 
Northern tribes, had gathered at Tippecanoe, the 
Prophet's town, and that the talk among them was 
all about a general confederacy of the red men 
against the whites. A messenger who could go to 
Tippecanoe and get back again was not easy to find, 
but the governor found him. He was a member of 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 65 

a small religious community known as Shakers, and 
was a personal friend of Tecumseh, whom he de- 
clared to be as good a Shaker as himself. He con- 
sented to act as ambassador, and carried to the 
Shawnee leaders a message, in which the governor 
drew a vivid picture of the destructive consequences, 
especially" to the Indians, of such a war as they were 
undertaking. He said to them : 

" Brothers ! I am myself the Long Knife fire. As soon as 
they hear my voice, you will see them pouring forth their swarms 
of hunting-shirt men, as numerous as the mosquitoes on the shores 
of the Wabash. Brothers, take care of their stings." 

The Indian confederacy was not yet ready for 
open war, and the Shaker envoy brought back a 
message from Tecumseh that he would meet the 
governor in eighteen days, " to wipe out all those 
bad stories." 

He kept his word, coming to Vincennes July 
27th, 181 1, with three hundred warriors, not less 
than two hundred of whom attended him at the 
council itself. The governor's guard, this time, 
consisted of a full company of dragoons, dismounted 
but ready for duty. 

A rain-storm broke up the council on the first day, 
and on the next there was a renewal of the old land 
discussion, with important additions. There had 
been many murders committed by Indians, but in 
most cases there had been left no living white wit- 
nesses to tell by whom the deeds were committed. 

There were two Pottawattamies, however, who 
were well identified as guilty of atrocities, and they 
were now in the Prophet's town. Their surrender for 



66 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

trial and punishment was demanded and refused. 
Tecumseh himself declared that all injuries on both 
sides ought to be forgiven, as a necessary part of 
the negotiations for peace. It was an uncommon 
example of savage hypocrisy, for his next proposi- 
tion was that a sort of truce should be declared 
until he should return from a long journey he had 
before him in the Southern country. He did not 
say, as was true, that his tour among the Creeks 
and other Southern tribes was for the purpose of 
urging them to immediately take up the tomahawk, 
but promised that upon his return he would go to 
Washington in person and settle matters with the 
President. In the meantime he would send out 
messengers to restrain the several tribes from hos- 
tilities, asserting that they were all under his au- 
thority, and would comply with his injunctions. In 
conclusion, he offered belts of wampum in payment 
for murders committed by his followers. 

Governor Harrison indignantly rejected the pro- 
posed payment, the council broke up, the Indian 
part of it disappeared among the woods, and Te- 
cumseh set out upon his Southern mission. How 
much he accomplished while absent was shortly wit- 
nessed by the terrible history of the Creek cam- 
paigns, but when he went South he left behind him 
no authority capable of restraining the aroused war- 
spirit of his followers in the Indiana Territory. 

Olliwachica really believed himself possessed of 
supernatural power, but was by no means the equal 
of his brother in practical leadership. Not the 
Prophet but Tecumseh was the statesman and gen- 



WILLIAM IIE\^RY HARRISON., 67 

eral of the forest confederacy. The Prophet's 
town, however, had become a sort of Mecca for curi- 
ous pilgrims from all the tribes. Those who came, 
bringing presents of provisions, which were shared in 
common, saw remarkable things and heard astound- 
ing declarations of great changes about to be made 
for their benefit. The Prophet assumed to be a 
magician, and there were strange ceremonials, with 
hideous incantations, which no white man was per- 
mitted to see or hear and live. Charms were manu- 
factured and distributed among believers to protect 
them from paleface weapons, and they were assured 
that in any battle for the new faith they would be 
invulnerable. 

Fanatics taught and excited In such a manner 
could not be restrained, and marauding parties of 
them penetrated the settlements more deeply than 
ever before. Homesteads which had been deemed 
secure were visited with pitiless destruction. Men 
and women and children were butchered, houses 
burned, and property carried away. The awful 
record was sent to Washington, and President Madi- 
son at last gave Governor Harrison authority to 
march against the Prophet. It was given with re- 
luctance, even then, and was hampered by peremp- 
tory orders from the Secretary of War " to avoid 
hostilities of any kind or to any degree not indis- 
pensably required." If Tecumseh had not been so 
far away, such orders might have been of greater 
value. 

Kentucky had suffered a full measure of the hor- 
rors of savage warfare, and its people were with 



68 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

Governor Harrison heart and soul. Sixty or seventy 
riflemen came to join him at once, promising as 
many more as he might need. The Fourth United 
States Infantry, Colonel Boyd, three hundred and 
fifty strong, was also put under his command, and 
his own volunteers numbered over six hundred, 
about a hundred and twenty being mounted. He 
informed his little army that, in case of any collision 
with the Indians in force he should follow the tac- 
tics of General Wayne, and trust to the bayonet. 
He also followed the example of his old leader on 
the march, moving and camping in a well-watched 
order of battle, ready for instant action, and not to 
be taken by surprise. If he had not done so, neither 
he nor his men would have returned to the settle- 
ments. The forces had rendezvoused at Fort Har- 
rison, sixty miles above Vincennes, and the move- 
ment toward Tippecanoe began on October 28th, 
1811. 

More as a matter of form than for any expecta- 
tion of good results a demand was sent to the 
Prophet for the Pottawattamie murderers and for the 
return of stolen horses. The reply was a contempt- 
uous refusal, and the Prophet at once sent out a 
war party to watch the governor's advance, with 
orders to kill all white men they might find within 
their reach. 

The orders of the Secretary of War permitted 
Harrison to move forward, but compelled him to 
wait for an attack. So cautious a march was neces- 
sarily slow, feeling its blind way through the woods, 
and a sudden movement across the Wabash, to get 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 69 

into a more open country, baffled any savage plans 
for ambuscade. For three days after crossing the 
river there were no signs of Indians, and a new and 
terrible anxiety presented itself. 

What if the savage leaders had left the troops to 
a useless march through the wilderness and had 
made a dash upon the unprotected settlements be- 
hind them ? Vincennes and other towns and vil- 
lages would be almost at their mercy, and the pict- 
ure presented to the mind of the harassed com- 
mander was so terrible that he could not sleep. He 
detached Major Jordan with forty men and orders 
to fortify the court house and other buildings at 
Vincennes, as places of temporary refuge for women 
and children ; to call out all the fighting men left, 
and to send to Kentucky for help. 

The Prophet was not a general capable of so bold 
a stroke, and had contented himself with setting 
very much the kind of trap by means of which the 
army of St. Clair, stronger than that now led by 
Harrison, had been defeated and half destroyed. 

By skilfully cautious marches the governor moved 
forward until, on November 5th, he was within 
a few miles of Tippecanoe, but it still seemed as 
if the woods contained no Indians, and the sus- 
pense was a trial hard to bear. The next day, at 
noon, as the advance pushed slowly on, Indians be- 
gan to show themselves, making insulting gestures 
and refusing to open communication. At about a 
mile and a half from the known site of the town 
Harrison halted and proposed to fortify a camp. 
He was ignorant of the nature of the ground before 



70 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: 

him, and was in some doubt whether a further ad- 
vance might be construed into a violation of his 
orders. He also wished to hear from some friendly- 
Indians whom he had sent with a peaceful message 
to the Prophet. All his officers urged him to push 
forward, and one, Major Daviess, knew the country, 
having gone through it as a surveyor, while another 
volunteered to carry a flag of truce. The latter was 
soon compelled to give up his courageous undertak- 
ing, but three Indian messengers, one of them a 
councilor of the Prophet, came to offer what 
amounted to a proposition for a temporary truce. 
They were part of Olliwachica's trap. 

The troops were led to what seemed a very good 
camping-ground high and dry above the swamps 
along the river. The Indian town was less than a 
mile away in full view on a hill, and was evidently 
garrisoned by swarms of warriors. 

All dispositions for the night of November 6th 
were made with especial care. Every man lay down 
with his clothes and accoutrements on him and his 
arms within reach. The sentries knew that their 
lives depended upon their watchfulness, and yet 
they very nearly watched in vain. 

At about a quarter before four o'clock of Novem- 
ber 7th Harrison arose and sat by his camp fire. 
There was a dim moonlight alternating with clouds 
and dashes of rain. It was just about time to sound 
the signal for the men to turn out when the camp 
was startled by the report of a musket, followed by 
the yell of savage onset. 

The stealthy red men had crept so near in the 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 71 

darkness that they were able to hear the low-voiced 
challenges and replies of the sentries changing guard. 
One sentry, however, had caught a glimpse of an 
Indian near him in the grass and had fired. 

The soldiers arose from their bivouacs ready for 
action, their leader sprang upon his horse and rode 
rapidly along his lines, the air rang with yells and 
shouts, with the rattle of musketry and the sharp 
cracking of rifles. 

There had almost been a surprise but not quite, 
and there remained a chance for the white men to 
defend themselves. They were about eight hundred 
in number, and the greater part of them had never 
before been under fire. With a few exceptions they 
behaved nobly, although broken at some points by 
the sudden rush of the enemy. The Indians also 
fought hard but irregularly, and were disconcerted 
by the unexpected state of preparation in which 
they found the camp. 

They soon began to fall back, and by the time 
the sun was well up the battle was over. Their 
loss in wounded was never ascertained, but thirty- 
eight dead warriors were found on the field, and 
others afterward in the town, while some were 
known to have been buried. The troops lost fifty 
killed and about a hundred wounded. 

Governor Harrison was peculiarly exposed during 
the fight, the Indians having an especial desire to 
kill him, but he escaped unhurt, the nearest bullet 
passing through the rim of his hat. 

The time came, nevertheless, when the virulence 
of partisan calumny accused him of having run away 



72 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

from the battle of Tippecanoe — that is, the vivid 
imagination of party editors pictured him as pru- 
dently escaping from among his brave riflemen into 
the comparative security of the swarm of red men 
in the forest around them. 

The slave trade was active in that day, and one 
of its most peculiar consequences was exhibited, at 
the South rather than at the North, at every point 
where runaway slaves could make common cause 
with the Indians. The Creeks and Seminoles espe- 
cially were joined by numbers of black recruits, not 
a few of whom had been born warriors in Africa. 
The night before the battle of Tippecanoe a negro 
named Ben had been captured while lurking near 
the governor's tent, with a plainly proved purpose 
of assassination. Immediately after the battle he 
was tried by a drumhead court-martial, and was con- 
demned to be shot. What was actually done with 
him can best be told by Governor Harrison himself, 
in the words of a letter which he wrote about it to 
his friend, Governor Scott, of Kentucky. 

" The fact was," he wrote, " that I began to pity 
him, and could not screw myself up to the point of 
giving the fatal order. If he had been out of my 
sight he would have been executed, but when he 
was first taken General Wells and Colonel Owen, 
who were old Indian fighters, as we had no irons to 
put on him, had secured him after the Indian fash- 
ion. This is done by throwing a person on his 
back, splitting a log and cutting notches in it to re- 
ceive the ankles, then replacing the severed parts 
and compressing them together with forks driven 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISOiV. 73 

over the log into the ground. The arms are ex- 
tended and tied to stakes, secured in the same man- 
ner. The situation for a person secured is as uneasy 
as can possibly be conceived. The poor wretch 
thus confined lay before my fire, his face receiving 
the rain that occasionally fell, and his eyes con- 
stantly turned upon me as if imploring mercy. I 
could not witlistand the appeal, and I determined 
to give him another chance for his life. I had all 
the commissioned officers assembled, and told them 
that his fate depended upon them. Some were for 
executing him, and I believe that a majority would 
have been against him but for the interference of 
the gallant Snelling. ' Brave comrades,' said he, 
* let us save him. The wretch deserves to die, but 
as our commander, whose life was more particularly 
his object, is willing to spare him, let us also forgive 
him. I hope, at least, that every officer of the 
Fourth Regiment will be on the side of mercy.' 
Snelling prevailed, and Ben was brought to this 
place, where he was discharged." 

Snelling and his brother officers were doubtless 
much influenced by their commander's known 
wishes, for his murder on the evening before the 
battle might have led to a massacre of them all in 
the dawn of the morning. 

The Indians had not lost warriors enough to dis- 
hearten them, but the influence of OUiwachica had 
been shattered beyond restoration. The great 
prophet and magician had not been personally ex- 
posed in the battle. He had stationed himself upon 
an elevated piece of ground near by, and chanted a 



74 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

war song as a kind of incantation. He had assured 
his deluded followers of victory and of being invul- 
nerable to paleface bullets. He said that they 
would have light to aim by while their enemies 
would be in darkness. When informed that his 
braves were falling fast, he did but repeat his pre- 
dictions, promise a speedy victory, and sing the 
louder. 

The discovery that he was a humbug probably 
had much to do with the immediate dispersion of 
the Indians, for they still outnumbered the troops 
more than two to one, and occupied a strong defen- 
sive position. 

As soon as his wounded could be cared for and his 
little army reorganized — for it had lost heavily in 
ofificers — Harrison advanced upon the town. He 
found it deserted, even some weapons and ammuni- 
tion having been left behind in the haste of panic- 
stricken departure. The object of the campaign 
had been thoroughly accomplished, and nothing re- 
mained but to march back to Vincennes. 

The news of the important blow given to the 
Prophet's confederacy went faster than the troops 
could march, and was everywhere received with en- 
thusiasm. The long nightmare of the frontier seemed 
to be broken, and every settler felt that his life and 
home were more secure. 

The Legislature of Kentucky at once adopted the 
following resolution : 

" Resolved, That in the late campaign of the 
Wabash Governor W. H, Harrison has, in the 
opinion of this Legislature, behaved like a hero, a 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 75 

patriot, and a general, and that for his cool, delib- 
erate, and gallant conduct at the late battle of Tip- 
pecanoe he deserves the warmest thanks of the 
nation." 

The territorial Legislature of Indiana passed sim- 
ilar resolutions, while the volunteers who fought 
under him held a meeting, and formally declared 
that their success in defeating the red men was 
owing to Harrison's " masterly conduct in the direc- 
tion and manoeuvring of the troops." The Presi- 
dent sent to Congress a message setting forth the 
importance of the victory, regretting the losses sus- 
tained, and making special mention of " the col- 
lected firmness which distinguished the commander 
on an occasion requiring the utmost exertion of 
valor and discipline." 

Now that the victory was gained, not anybody 
seemed disposed to criticise the exceedingly strong 
self-confidence which had carried such a handful of 
men, however brave and however well handled, into 
the very jaws of destruction. The troops themselves 
merited the highest praise for their good conduct in 
a morning twilight struggle, in which every fifth 
man was down, killed or wounded, before the sur- 
vivors could see clearly enough to get a good shot 
at an enemy. 



CHAPTER VII. 

TecumseJi s Return — War Declared with England — 
The Rising of the Tribes — HuWs Surrender — Har- 
rison a General — A very New Commissiofi — Wide 
Authority — Quelling Discontented Volunteers. 

Tecumseh returned from the South to find that 
his fanatical brother had precipitated matters in such 
a manner as to leave him no ground for any negoti- 
ations. He saw that he must at once declare in 
favor of the Engh'sh, or else make a voluntary sur- 
render to the Long Knives, As between the two 
paleface powers he correctly understood that the 
former were much the stronger, and he reasoned 
that with their assistance he would be able to re- 
cover and maintain " the old boundary line" which 
he demanded. The tribes were not prepared for 
immediate hostilities, however, and he himself was 
willing to temporize until he could rebuild his badly 
damaged confederacy. As early as December the 
chiefs of other tribes, but not any Shawnees, began 
to come in to Vincennes to try and settle matters 
with Governor Harrison. As many as eighty came 
during the following February, and by the end of 
March it looked as if there had been a harvest of 
peace from the field of Tippecanoe. It was a deceit- 
ful appearance, for while many of the forest leaders 
were sincere, more were under the influence of Te- 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 77 

cumseh and his Canadian allies. The same chiefs, 
of both classes, met British agents in a war council 
held in May at Mississinewa, and again at Mai- 
den, in Upper Canada. In each council there were 
Indian speakers who denounced Tecumseh and the 
British, but they were sadly in the minority. 

There were a few months of comparative quiet 
along the frontier, but war was formally declared 
between Great Britain and the United States on 
June 1 8th, 18 12, and the savage tribes arose in arms 
as fast as the news spread among them. Their 
war parties fell at once upon the more exposed set- 
tlements, inflicting terrible barbarities. There had 
been neither warning nor preparation, and the peo- 
ple deserted their cabins and clearings to flock to 
Vincennes and other supposed places of refuge. 

There was an almost unanimous voice calling for 
Governor Harrison to rally and lead such forces as 
could be gathered for the common protection. The 
Governor of Kentucky sent to him requesting a 
conference, and he at once proceeded to Frankfort. 
A grand reception was given him there, and the 
two governors discussed together the gloomy pros- 
pect and their plans for its improvement. At Lex- 
ington a public dinner was given, at which Harrison 
made a speech which so impressed his hearers that 
they urged him to put his military views in writing 
and transmit them to Washington. He hesitated 
at first, but yielded to an assurance from Henry 
Clay that the administration would be sincerely glad 
to receive advice from him at such a juncture. He 
wrote, and it was by no means an encouraging letter 



78 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

for the President to read. In it he said, as if pro- 
phetically : 

" If it were certain that General Hull would be able, even with 
the re-eniorcement which is now about to be sent to him, to reduce 
Maiden and retake Mackinac, there would be no necessity of send- 
ing other troops in that direction. But I greatly fear that the cap- 
ture of Mackinac will give such dclat to the British and Indian arms 
that the Northern tribes will pour down in swarms upon Detroit, 
oblige General Hull to act entirely upon the defensive, and meet, 
and perhaps overpower, the convoys and re-enforcements which 
may be sent him. It appears to me, indeed, highly probable that 
the large detachment which is now destined for his relief, under 
Colonel Wells, will have to fight its way. I rely greatly upon the 
valor of these troops, but it is possible that the event may be ad- 
verse to us, and if it is, Detroit must fall, and with it every hope of 
re-establishing our affairs in that quarter until next year." 

He referred to the exposed condition of other 
posts and places, and what the whole letter meant 
was, " You should have made better preparations 
before declaring war, and you should show more 
vigor now." Perhaps he did not know how really 
slender had been and then was the military power 
in the control of the President of the United States. 

Mackinac was already in the hands of the British. 
A few days after the letter was sent Chicago had 
fallen. In a few days more/General Hull had sur- 
rendered Detroit, and the entire border was open to 
any movement the British or their savage allies 
might please to undertake. 

The Indiana men were rallying fast. Ohio raised 
twelve hundred volunteers at once. Five thousand 
five hundred Kentucky riflemen came forward at 
once, in response to the fiery eloquence of Henry 



WILLIAM HENRY HARBISON: 79 

Clay. There was to be no lack of men, but there 
was a very serious question as to how they were to 
be commanded. The volunteers were so determined 
upon Harrison that they were almost ready to refuse 
to march under any other leader. Governor Scott 
of Kentucky was in full accord with his fellow- 
citizens, but he was hampered by a legal difficulty. 
Harrison's authority as territorial Governor en- 
titled him to command only the Indiana troops, 
volunteers, or militia. He was not a citizen of 
Kentucky, and there was already a regularly ap- 
pointed major-general for the troops of that State. 
There was a caucus held of leading citizens, headed 
by Henry Clay, and they advised Governor Scott to 
circumvent the law by appointing Harrison a Brevet 
Major-General of Kentucky militia, and give him 
command of the detachment about to be sent to 
Detroit, and of any re-enforcements which might fol- 
low. The governor did as they advised, and the 
volunteers were satisfied, but their troubles were 
not ended. 

General Hull's surrender put an end to the cam- 
paign, but not to General Harrison's remarkable 
commission. The War Department at Washington 
named General Winchester to command all forces in 
the Northv/est, and sent to Harrison a commission 
as brigadier-general in the regular army. He re- 
fused to accept it until he could inform the depart- 
ment of the steps he had already taken, and learn if 
his new commission placed him under the orders of 
General Winchester. He found, however, that it 
was needful for him to act for the public service 



8o WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

and particularly that he might not frustrate the ex- 
ertions he was compelled to make to induce his men 
to serve at all under Winchester. They declared 
that they would do so only in the hope that their 
favorite would be given the supreme authority. 

While this point remained unsettled — for commu- 
nication with Washington was slow in those days — 
the newly-made Brigadier-General and Brevet Major- 
General of Kentucky militia gave his best attention 
to the army under him and to his plans for its profit- 
able employment. He proposed the recapture of 
Detroit, the taking of Maiden, and the control of 
Lake Erie. With reference to the latter object, 
he wrote to recommend the immediate construction 
of armed vessels upon the lakes. 

The reports of the General to the Secretary of 
War presented a remarkable picture of American 
military affairs in the Western Department. While 
the entire Canadian border, with the lakes, was 
under control of the British, so that no barrier to 
their movements existed, Tecumseh's league had 
re-enforced them with bands of the best warriors of 
almost every Indian tribe. Even upon the banks 
of the Mississippi the work of destruction was going 
forward, and every detached post in the wilderness 
might be regarded as in a state of siege and peril. 
As for the troops under Harrison, brave and eager 
volunteers though they were, they were defectively 
supplied with arms and ammunition, and were al- 
most destitute of provisions. The artillery train 
consisted of one old iron four-pounder, and if that 
should burst the army would be without cannon. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 8 1 

What he could not say for himself was vigorously 
urged by other writers, who plainly told the Gov- 
ernment that its hope for good results to come de- 
pended upon William Henry Harrison and his vol- 
unteers, since everything else, including the War 
Department, had broken down. These representa- 
tions had their full effect upon President Madison, 
and he acted upon them almost too late to prevent 
disastrous consequences. 

Making the best use of all the resources placed at 
his disposal by the people of Kentucky, Indiana, 
and Ohio, General Harrison moved his troops as 
rapidly as possible. 

Fort Wayne was already invested by a numerous 
force of Indians, but they retreated upon Harrison's 
approach. He determined to act vigorously upon 
the offensive, and at once sent out strong detach- 
ments into the Indian country, left comparatively 
defenceless by the absence of the warriors on the 
warpath. Towns and cornfields were destroyed, 
but not in retaliation for the burning of settlers' 
cabins. It was strictly a military measure, and 
went far toward crippling an important part of Te- 
cumseh's league. 

While General Harrison was pushing the cam- 
paign in his own way, with the army which had 
chosen him for its leader, General Winchester ar- 
rived in the camp. He brought with him the first 
set of orders issued by the War Department, by 
virtue of which he assumed supreme command of 
the troops and the Western District. 

This was the very thing which had been feared by 



82 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

all in the West, and to which Harrison had already 
in writing refused to assent. He was not alone 
among military men in his lack of confidence in 
Winchester. He knew that General Jackson and 
other capable judges had already expressed similar 
views. There was no doubt but that Winchester 
had acquitted himself well in the war for indepen- 
dence, but he was now an elderly gentleman of ele- 
gant manners, somewhat accustomed to take his 
ease, and decidedly out of place in command of 
backwoods volunteers fighting savages. With him 
in supreme authority there might well be reason to 
fear another campaign of defeats and disgraces. 

General Harrison turned over the army to Gen- 
eral Winchester at once, and left the camp. He 
was on his way to his home, at Indianapolis, when 
he was overtaken by despatches from the War De- 
partment containing the later and wiser decision of 
President Madison. The new orders gave evidence 
that the representations of Henry Clay, Governor 
Scott, and other Western leaders had produced 
their full effect upon the mind of the President, and 
that he had peremptorily overruled all the " old 
army" jealousies. He appointed General Harrison 
to the command of the Northwestern army, but 
with extraordinary power, such as had been before 
given only to General Washington and to General 
Greene. After detailing the forces to be placed 
under Harrison's command — about ten thousand 
men, and with artillery means of supply — the order 
read : " Having provided for the protection of the 
Western frontier, you will retake Detroit, and, with 



WILLIAM HENR Y HARRISON. 83 

a view to the conquest of Upper Canada, you will 
penetrate that country as far as the force under 
your command will, in your judgment, justify. . . . 
With these objects in view, you will command such 
means as may be practicable, exercise your own dis- 
cretion, and act in all cases according to your own 
judgment." 

A wider authority could not well have been given, 
but it was no time to hamper a man who had al- 
ready raised an army entirely devoted to him, and 
for whom a State had been compelled to invent an 
entirely new and original commission. 

General Harrison promptly accepted the respon- 
sibility thus placed upon him, and turned his face 
again toward the army he had left. A considerable 
body of re-enforcements went with him, and he took 
them forward by severely rapid marches. The 
weather was bad, the commissariat had broken 
down, as usual, and the men suffered from fatigue, 
exposure, and hunger. The story is told that one 
evening they camped in the rain, without food or 
tents, and without even fires, for they had not yet 
been furnished with axes. A small fire had been 
kindled for the General, as an especial luxury, and 
he sat by it surrounded by his dripping officers. A 
spirit of well-justified discontent was abroad among 
the men, and they were grumbling audibly over 
what seemed their entirely needless privations. 
Suddenly the General turned to one of the ofificers 
who was known to have uncommonly good vocal 
powers, and called upon him for a comic Irish bal- 
lad then popular. It had probably never before 



84 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

sounded so grotesquely comic and out of place, 
but the men caught the meaning of their com- 
mander. Song followed song, and the famine and 
the rain were beaten. 

There had been almost a mutiny in the force 
under Winchester, for there were many causes of 
discontent to aggravate the dissatisfaction of the 
volunteers at the removal, as they understood it, of 
their chosen leader. One entire Kentucky regiment 
had declared its deliberate intention of marching 
home, and others were but little less than ready to 
follow. At this perilous juncture General Harrison 
arrived, late one evening, so worn out with his jour- 
ney that he at once went to his quarters and lay 
down. The troops were not informed of his com- 
ing, but he was told of the state of affairs. He list- 
ened, and merely replying that he would settle it 
in his own way, went to sleep. 

The next morning came, and the troops were start- 
led by a ringing call to arms, instead of the cus- 
tomary reveille. No sooner were they ready than 
they were formed in a hollow square, and in the 
centre of it quickly appeared General Harrison him- 
self. He was greeted with enthusiastic shouts of 
welcome. When these subsided, he addressed the 
men, formally assuming command and speaking 
hopefully of the work before them. He strongly 
expressed his regret at the reported discontent. It 
was mortifying to himself, he said, but was of small 
importance to the country. He had more men 
than he knew what to do with, and more were com- 
ing. It was fortunate that he had discovered the 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 85 

dissatisfaction at the outset, in time to prevent it 
from becoming the cause of disgrace and disaster in 
the field. He then added : 

" Now, so far as the Government is interested, the discontented 
troops who have come into the woods with the expectation of find- 
ing all the luxuries of home and peace have full liberty to return. 
I will order facilities for their immediate accommodation, but I 
cannot refrain from expressing the mortification I anticipate from 
the reception they will meet from the old and the young who 
greeted them on their march to the scene of war as their gallant 
neighbors. What will be their feelings when they see those whom 
they hailed as their generous defenders now returning without 
striking a blow and before their term of plighted service had ex- 
pired ? If their fathers do not drive back their degenerate sons to 
the field of battle, their mothers and sisters will hiss them from 
their presence. If, however, the discontented men are disposed to 
put up with all the taunts and disdain which await them, wherever 
they may go, they are at liberty to go back." 

By the time the General ceased speaking there 
were no longer any discontented men in that camp. 
The most serious cause of complaint, that of being 
sent to fight under a man who, in their opinion, 
was likely to throw them away in some defeat or 
other, seemed to have been removed, and they were 
quite willing to remain. They were only half right, 
for Winchester himself had not been removed, but 
was still in camp as a not very compliant second in 
command to Harrison. 

The causes of complaint which grew out of the 
miserable condition of the quartermaster's depart- 
ment and the wretchedly defective means of trans- 
portation and supply were not to be overcome by 
skilful addresses. The General continued to be 
hampered and harassed at every step by difficulties 



86 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

precisely similar to those which in the South all but 
paralyzed the fiery energies of General Jackson. 
There were few resemblances between the two com- 
manders, but there was a striking parallel in the 
patient patriotism, courage, and capacity with which 
they kept together and directed armies of half-fed 
volunteers and militia. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Preparing for a CampaigJi — Wide Authority — The 
Massacre of the Raisin — A Navy for the Lakes — 
Siege of Fort Meigs — The Battle of Lake Erie — 
The Battle of the Thames — Death of Tecumseh — 
Harrison Removed front Command. 

General Harrison did not allow the approach 
of cold weather to interfere with his plan of cam- 
paign. He proposed to concentrate his army at the 
rapids of the Miami of the Lakes, with a military- 
base extending from Sandusky, Ohio, on the right 
to Fort Defiance on the left. He reached San- 
dusky, in person, on December i8th, 1812, General 
Winchester being sent to take charge of operations 
on the left. Harrison's own especial attention was 
required for the improvement of army organization, 
and increasing the strength of the fortified posts. 
There were frequent skirmishes with small bodies of 
Indians, and the minor forts were liable to attack at 
any time. It was a winter campaign of extreme 
watchfulness, in which the enemy for a time appar- 
ently had the worst of it, while the American hnes 
were steadily pushed forward. There were hun- 
dreds of men under Harrison who were there to take 
vengeance upon the savages, and it became neces- 
sary for him to issue special orders for the protec- 
tion of Indian women and children, lest these should 



88 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

share the fate of the murdered families of the Ken- 
tucky and Indiana settlers. 

Renewed orders from Washington placed even a 
broader interpretation upon the discretionary powers 
already conferred, and General Harrison was left 
entirely unembarrassed, except by the presence of 
General Winchester. That officer had thus far con- 
ducted himself well, and there could be no question 
of cither his patriotism or his zeal. What might 
well be questioned, however, was his knowledge of 
Indian character and of forest tactics. Orders 
which had been given him for an advance movement 
had also been countermanded speedily, on news 
coming to Harrison that Tecumseh was gathering a 
large body of warriors on the upper Wabash. The 
despatch directed Winchester to fall back to Fort 
Jennings, but, when it reached him, he was already 
on the march, and believed himself justified in going 
forward. He sent Leslie Coombs, of Kentucky, to 
inform General Harrison of his decision, and the 
messenger found his way on foot through the woods, 
with one man as a guide. It was startling news to 
the general commanding, but there was worse to 
come, although an attempt was at once made to 
support the officer who exhibited so rash a contempt 
of Tecumseh. General Winchester reached the 
rapids on January loth, 1813, fortified a strong posi- 
tion upon the north bank of the river, and might 
have prospered fairly well if he could have been con- 
tented to remain there. He learned, however, that 
a body of Indians were on the river Raisin, moving 
toward the settlements, and, on the 17th, he sent 



WILLIAM HENRY 2IARRIS0N. 89 

against them Colonel Lewis with five hundred and 
fifty men, followed by Colonel Allen with a hundred 
and ten more. Colonel Lewis sent back word that 
there were only four hundred Indians on the Raisin, 
but that the British Colonel Elliott was advancing 
with more Indians and a force of British soldiers, for 
an attack upon the camp at the rapids. 

News of the British movement had reached Har- 
rison also, and he was hastening to the support of 
Winchester, but it was too late for his best efforts 
to be of any use. Colonel Lewis had a sharp fight 
at Frenchtown, defeating about a hundred British 
and four hundred Indians. The loss of the enemy 
was heavy, and that of the Americans twelve killed 
and fifty-five wounded. Instead of ordering a re- 
treat, Winchester came to the support of Lewis with 
two hundred and fifty men, and deemed himself so 
strong and so secure that his camp that night offered 
a strong contrast to that of Harrison before Tippe- 
canoe. Even ordinary precautions were but imper- 
fectly observed. During the night, January 2ist, 
1813, the enemy crept up unseen, and the war- 
whoop sounded at daylight. There was an over- 
whelming rush of wild warriors, supported by Brit- 
ish regulars with six pieces of artillery, and the 
troops were slaughtered as they sprang to arms. 
Part of the right wing of Winchester's force suc- 
ceeded in forming for battle only to break before 
the charge of the enemy, and the General himself 
was taken prisoner while bravely striving to rally his 
men. The left held its ground better, and a part of 
it, under Major Madison, held out with peculiar 



90 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

obstinacy until General Winchester, already a pris- 
oner, sent orders for its surrender. The brave major 
still refused, declaring that he had no confidence 
that any terms of capitulation would be respected. 
Colonel Proctor, commanding the combined force of 
British and Indians, indignantly gave his own per- 
sonal word of honor that safety would be assured. 
The whole field had been a scene of disorderly 
butchery, and now, as soon as Major Madison and 
his men laid down their arms, Colonel Proctor turned 
them over to his savage allies, who proceeded to 
murder them all in cold blood. Not all American 
prisoners who died, however, were so fortunate as 
to be killed at once, for a number were kept by the 
red men for scenes of barbarous triumph, merciless 
torture, and cruel death, which continued during 
several days. 

One major, one captain, and less than thirty pri- 
vate soldiers were all who escaped death or capture. 
The accounts which have been preserved of the 
massacre of the Raisin are fragmentary, and the 
testimonies are more or less conflicting as to the 
several responsibilities, but all agree as to its unmit- 
igated' horror. Searching censure was at once di- 
rected toward General Harrison, but it was disarmed 
by the fact that the forward movement of Winches- 
ter was made in disregard of distinct orders. Such 
evidence as could be collected went to prove that if 
proper precautions had been taken against a sudden 
attack, such a success of the enemy would have been 
impossible. One sad feature of the bloody result 
was the fact that a large part of the Kentucky vol- 



WILLIAM HENRY HA RR I SON 91 

unteers who perished were the very men who had 
almost mutinied on account of their lack of confi- 
dence in the General who had now so terribly justi- 
fied their premonitions. 

A part of the American prisoners received pro- 
tection from the British, and Colonel Proctor was 
promoted to the rank of Major-General for the vic- 
tory planned and won by Tecumseh and his war- 
riors. 

The grand campaign proposed by General Harri- 
son was badly shattered by the affair of the Raisin. 
He did his best, however, to limit the evil conse- 
quences of a defeat so stingingly severe. He forti- 
fied the camp at the rapids of the Miami of the Lakes, 
and named it Fort Meigs, made the best disposi- 
tion he could for checking any supposable advance 
of the enemy, and then hurried to Kentucky for 
re-enforcements. At the same time he again urged 
upon the Government the construction of armed 
vessels upon the Lakes. In response to his repre- 
sentations, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was 
sent to Erie, with instructions to build and launch 
several new vessels suitable for lake service, and to 
repair and equip such others as he might be able to 
obtain. 

Early in the Spring General Harrison returned to 
Fort Meigs, for there were signs of an advance of 
the enemy. By April 28th, 181 3, the post was fully 
invested by a combined force of British and Indians, 
under General Proctor and Tecumseh. A vigorous 
cannonade was begun upon both sides on May 1st, 
but no great harm was done to the fort or its gar- 



92 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

rison. On the 5th the Kentucky re-enforcements 
arrived, three thousand strong, under General Clay, 
Sharp fighting followed, in which the enemy were at 
first worsted, but a small detachment of Americans 
who followed too far were surrounded and captured. 
They surrendered to British officers, but the usual 
butchery by Indians at once began. It was stopped 
by Tecumseh himself, the chief declaring in strong 
language his opinion of the inhumanity of killing 
unarmed men. 

Hardly was the skirmishing at an end before Gen- 
eral Proctor distinguished himself by sending a flag 
with a demand for the immediate surrender of Fort 
Meigs, and for this piece of effrontery he received a 
sharp rebuke from General Harrison. 

The attempt to reduce the post continued more 
and more feebly for a few weeks longer, and was 
then given up for the time. Early in July Proctor 
again advanced, and it was reported that Tecuinseh, 
aided by the British Indian agent, Dickson, had 
gathered no less than five thousand warriors to 
strengthen the hands of his white allies. General 
Harrison had his hands more than full, for there 
were many minor engagements all along the line, 
and there was no forecasting at what point the next 
blow of the vigilant red leader might be aimed. 
Plow well the General performed his arduous task 
was proved by the fact that, before the end of the 
month, Proctor once more abandoned his attempt 
upon Fort Meigs. He led a force of five hundred 
British regulars and eight hundred Indians against 
Fort Stephenson, at Sandusky, while Tecumseh, 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 93 

with two thousand warriors, watched the path to 
Fort Meigs to prevent re-enforcements from reaching 
what seemed to be a doomed garrison. When Gen- 
eral Proctor demanded the surrender of Fort Steph- 
enson, however, and added that in case of resist- 
ance he would be unable to protect its defenders 
from massacre by the Indians, Major Croghan, a 
mere youth in command of a boy garrison, replied 
that if the fort should be taken there would be no 
one left to massacre, as it would not be given up so 
long as a man in it remained alive. With a cour- 
ageous appreciation of the kind of protection given 
by Proctor to his prisoners on other occasions, they 
preferred to die fighting rather than in cold blood. 

The British and Indians made a persistent attack 
upon the fort, but were repulsed with heavy loss, 
in a manner which gained lasting fame for Major 
Croghan. At the same time, however, the anti-war 
party and all other enemies of President Madison's 
administration found at this and other points ma- 
terials for bitter attacks upon General Harrison. 
According to the assailants of the President, the 
harassed General had cooped himself up at Fort 
Meigs and abandoned Croghan to his fate, when he 
should have gone out into the pleasant summer 
woods, and entirely destroyed the British army and 
Tecumseh and the confederated tribes of the North- 
west. 

The partisan criticisms upon the General's capacity 
did not express the opinion of the experienced Ind- 
ian fighters under his command, or of Major Crog- 
han himself, and their confidence in him had been 



94 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

increased rather than diminished. More volunteers 
than he could accept were offered, especially in 
Kentucky, and the spirits of the settlers rose as the 
baffled invaders fell back. The Indian chiefs plainly 
perceived that no important impression had been 
made upon the strength of the Americans, and that 
the restoration of " the old boundary" was as far ofT 
as ever. It was not easy to keep their followers 
together, for military operations requiring patient 
endurance and a sufficient number of British troops 
had not been sent. 

During all that harassing summer. General Harri- 
son had been watching the progress of another and 
vitally important part of his plan for the invasion 
of Upper Canada. Commodore Perry and his ship- 
wrights had worked with steady industry at Erie. 
They had felled trees, and from the green timber 
had constructed six new vessels. They had repaired 
and armed four more, and the entire fleet so ob- 
tained was at last, in August, floated out into the 
lake, over the bar at the harbor's mouth, with the 
help of scow "camels." It was believed to be 
superior in guns, if not in construction, to the Brit- 
ish flotilla which had watched and waited for it, but 
it was short of men. This lack was made up largely 
by volunteers from Harrison's army, and Commo- 
dore Perry went to meet the opposing squadron 
on September loth. His despatch announcing to 
General Harrison the result, " We have met the 
enemy, and they are ours," briefly expressed the 
fact that Great Britain no longer had any armed 
vessels afloat upon Lake Erie. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 95 

The road into Canada was now open, and the en- 
tire military position had undergone a sudden 
change. The American commander and not the 
British could select the point for striking. 

Heavy re-enforcements were arriving fast. The 
Kentucky volunteers, whose terms of enlistment 
had expired, refused to go home. The whole army 
was brimful of enthusiasm, and the General decided 
to make a vigorous use of it. The troops were fer- 
ried across the lake between the i6th and 24th of 
September, and on the 26th General Harrison and 
Commodore Perry sailed to reconnoitre the import- 
ant port and post of Maiden. The next day gen- 
eral orders for an advance were issued, but there 
was to be no battle at that point. General Proctor 
had burned the fort and the navy yard, and had re- 
treated. The American army followed, and the 
Canadian people along the route fled from their 
homes, as if another tribe of Indians were coming, 
until they were assured that nobody intended to 
hurt them. 

On October 1st, Harrison announced to a meet- 
ing of his general officers his intention of pur- 
suing the enemy until he should find them. They 
and he expected either a long pursuit or a short one, 
with a hard-fought battle at the end of it, but no 
such thing was before them. On the 5th, after 
several sharp preliminary skirmishes. General Proc- 
tor's force was encountered occupying a strong posi- 
tion, its left guarded by the river Thames, and its 
right by a forest and by two thousand warriors 
under Tecumseh. All the strength of the British 



96 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

regular troops, however, was thrown away by a mili- 
tary blunder on the part of their commander. He 
had put them in position in open order, as if they 
were to be assailed only by infantry, perhaps not 
knowing" that the American army possessed a pecul- 
iarly efficient cavalry force. This was Colonel R. 
M. Johnson's Kentucky regiment of mounted vol- 
unteers. The moment the blunder was reported to 
Harrison, he ordered a cavalry charge, and the fate 
of the battle was decided. The horsemen dashed 
through the extended, weakened line, and turned 
upon it, but it did not form again in face of the 
superior force of riflemen hurrying forward to sup- 
port the cavalry. The brave fellows saw that it 
would be of no use, and threw down their arms. 
Tecumseh made a desperate effort to rescue his pale- 
face friends, but the rush of his warriors was met 
by a determined charge of the mounted men. There 
was a sharp struggle for a moment, and then with a 
great cry the Indians turned and fled, for their con- 
federacy was broken, and their war for "the old 
boundary line" was over. Tecumseh was dead. 

The losses on either side were very small, the 
British having only nineteen killed and fifty 
wounded. About six hundred were made prisoners, 
but General Proctor and a few of his officers and 
men escaped, beginning their effort to do so as soon 
as the line broke. The British commander's hasty 
care for his personal safety was not unwise, for 
many of Johnson's rough riders had lost friends or 
kindred at the Raisin, and might have been over- 
hasty in case of catching the man whom they be- 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 97 

lieved largely responsible for the horrors of that 
massacre. 

The retreating Indians were not needlessly fol- 
lowed into the forest, as General Harrison well knew 
that they would speedily disperse and find their 
way to their own tribes. 

All the artillery and stores of the British army in 
Upper Canada were now in the hands of the Ameri- 
cans and so was the province itself, but the most 
important fruit of the victory was by no means any 
influence it might have upon British plans for the 
further prosecution of the war. The real and very 
great value of the victory of the Thames was its 
effect upon all the Indian tribes of the Northwest. 
It settled forever the vexed land question, with ref- 
erence to old treaties or to new, and cleared the 
way for the removal of the red men from all the 
territory now included in the great States of the 
Mississippi Valley. The consequences could hardly 
have been greater if a hundred thousand men had 
met on either side, and if half of them had fallen. 

The news went fast throughout the United States, 
and was everywhere greeted with as much surprise 
as pleasure by a people who had been terribly dis- 
pirited by the previous military events of the War of 
1812. Perry's victory had aroused them from a sort 
of lethargy, hardly any of them knowing that Gen- 
eral Harrison had any part in the merit of it, and 
now came the death of the dreaded Tecumseh, the 
dispersion of his warriors, the capture of the British 
troops of Proctor, and the apparent occupation of 
Upper Canada. 



98 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

General Harrison issued a proclamation to the 
people, assuring them of the peaceful enforcement 
of law during American occupation, but was pain- 
fully aware how faint and narrow was his actual 
conquest, and how defective were his means for 
further activities. Shortly after the battle he gave 
a dinner to thirty-five captured British ofificers, as 
an expression of soldierly good-will, and all the lux- 
ury he could set before them was roasted fresh beef 
without bread or salt. He and his army were living 
from hand to mouth, and he had not even captured 
anything which enabled him to give a better din- 
ner. 

President Madison sent to Congress a message, in 
which he pronounced a high eulogium upon the 
commander and his men, and Langdon Cheves de- 
clared, upon the floor of the Senate, that " the vic- 
tory of Harrison was such as would have secured to 
a Roman general, in the best days of the Republic, 
the honors of a triumph." 

The army began its homeward movement in Oc- 
tober, and already chiefs of the Indian tribes were 
beginning to sue for peace. General Harrison re- 
ferred their cases, as they were presented, to the 
Government at Washington, for his mind and time 
were fully occupied with other plans of a military 
nature, and he believed himself in full command of 
the Northern border. He sailed from recaptured 
Detroit, in the Ariel, accompanied by Commodore 
Perry, and on October 28th arrived at Erie, to 
be greeted by such a reception as their joint ex- 
ploits seemed to merit. He was on his way, shortly 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 99 

afterward, with fifteen hundred of his men to Fort 
Niagara, when he was met by orders from Wash- 
ington to take his troops to Sackett's Harbor. All 
unknown to him, changes were ' taking place by 
which his plans were to be rendered useless and his 
military career brought to a speedy end. 

From Sackett's Harbor, under orders received, he 
went on to Washington, by way of New York and 
Philadelphia. It was a species of triumphal prog- 
ress, for in all the towns along the way he was 
greeted by gathered crowds, the roar of salutes, the 
peal of bells, and the glare of bonfires kindled in his 
honor. It was a time when the people were ex- 
ceedingly glad of a military hero, who had actually 
won something. So very many of their possible 
heroes had either run away or surrendered, or been 
compelled to make excuses. 

While at Fort George, before receiving the orders 
which practically rescinded his previous ample au- 
thority and restricted him to the Eighth Military 
District — the Western border— the General had had 
a vigorous correspondence with the British General 
Vincent with reference to the practice of turning 
over American prisoners to Indian mercies. 

It was a matter of course that the representative 
of a civilized power should strongly disavow the 
charges of bad faith and barbarism so emphatically 
presented, but the ghastly record remains, as if it 
were a sequel to the fiery protests of Chatham and 
Colonel Barr^ in Parliament during the Revolution- 
ary War. 

While Proctor received honor and promotion. 



lOO W/LLIAM HENRY HARRSION. 

Tecumseh's widow and children, and his brother, 
the Prophet, were justly granted pensions. Olli- 
wachica gave up preaching and prophesying, and 
lived a number of years in peace and comfort upon 
the gratitude of England. 



CHAPTER IX. 

General Harrisofi's Rcsignatio7i — Indian Commis- 
sioner Once More — A Medal of Honor — Member of 

• Congress — State Senator — Presidential Elector — 
Ufiited States Senator — Minister to Colombia — 
Removed by General Jackson — Clerk of Common 
Pleas — President — The End. 

General Harrison was apparently well received 
at Washington, and was urged by President Madi- 
son to proceed at once to Cincinnati to superintend 
operations in that quarter. He at first assented, in 
spite of his severe and humiliating disappointment, 
but there were more bitter things in store for him. 
The new Secretary of War, General John Arm- 
strong, had imbibed a prejudice against a man whose 
rapidly-growing fame was in the way of his own am- 
bition, to make himself at the same time secretary 
and general-in-chief, commanding the forces in the 
field. He was prevented by the vigorous protests 
of James Monroe from carrying that absurdity into 
full effect, but he succeeded perfectly in confusing 
the new campaign. So far as Harrison was con- 
cerned, almost the next order issued by Armstrong 
was a personal insult. It was sent to a Major 
Holmes, and gave him independent authority over 
troops which formed a part of the command as- 
signed to Harrison, and were within his district. 



I02 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

The General saw but one course consistent with his 
own honor and the good of the service, and he acted 
promptly. The remarkable order of the Secretary 
of War was dated April 25th, 1814, and immediately 
upon official knowledge of it, Harrison forwarded 
his resignation. At the same time, Governor Isaac 
Shelby, of Kentucky, who had especially distin- 
guished himself in the previous campaign, wrote an 
indignant protest against the treatment the Admin- 
istration seemed to be meting out to the man whom 
the people of the West regarded as a hero. 

Neither the resignation nor the protest at once 
met the eyes of the President, for when they arrived 
he was absent from Washington on a visit to his 
Virginia farm. Armstrong was there, however, and 
his plan for retiring Harrison had succeeded to his 
satisfaction. Without waiting for Mr. Madison's 
concurrence, he promptly accepted the resignation, 
and Harrison was no longer an officer of the army. 
In the very zenith of his military career he had sud- 
denly been turned into a private citizen. 

There was one specially noteworthy consequence 
of Armstrong's course toward the man he removed 
from power. A brigadier-general's commission in 
the regular army was opportunely left vacant, to be 
at once filled with the name of Andrew Jackson, 
that he might be put in command of the Southern 
forces. The blundering vanity of the Secretary of 
War did not prevent the subsequent eminence of 
Harrison, while it opened the way for a much more 
unmanageable and aspiring military and civil leader. 

President Madison, on returning to Washington, 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 1 03 

freely expressed his regret at what had been done, 
but he had not in him enough of dictatorial force to 
remedy the wrong decisively. He expressed his 
good-will and his confidence in General Harrison, 
however, by speedily placing him at the head of an 
important commission to treat with the Indian 
tribes. Governor Isaac Shelby and General Lewis 
Cass were joined with Harrison in that commission, 
and General McArthur and Hon. John Graham in 
another which he was appointed to in the following 
year, 1815. 

Beyond a doubt, the right man had been put into 
the right place, and the country possessed no other 
public servant to whom it could more safely have 
intrusted the harvesting of the fruits of the long 
struggle with Tecumseh and his confederacy. It 
was well that the red chiefs should once more meet 
in council the white chief for whom they enter- 
tained so thorough a respect, and who, on his part, 
had so intimate an acquaintance with their general 
character, and even their personal traits and indi- 
vidual records. 

The remarkable course of the Secretary of War 
ended with the burning of the city of Washington, 
which his genius for blundering had left unguarded ; 
other generals made or lost military reputations 
upon the Canada border and at the South ; while 
Harrison, as Indian Commissioner, carried on with 
wisdom and success what had really been the great 
work of his laborious life. 

He had now become a citizen of the State of 
Ohio, owning a good farm at North Bend, on the 



104 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

Ohio River, fifteen miles below the growing city of 
Cincinnati. His home was only a fair morning drive 
from the lines upon which he had posted his watch- 
ful sentries, when General Wayne made him com- 
mander of Fort Washington. 

In the year 1816, Hon, John McLean, Represen- 
tative in Congress from Ohio, resigned, and there 
was a sharp canvass for the succession. Six candi- 
dates were in the field, and William Henry Harrison 
was one of them. With all his known popularity, 
the count of votes presented a surprise, for he was 
elected by a majority of more than a thousand over 
all his competitors. 

He had stepped from one field of duty and use- 
fulness to another, but there had been a bitter cup 
in course of preparation for him. While in com- 
mand of the army his rigid exactness had acquired 
him the enmity of every army contractor, whose 
course had failed to meet with his approval. One 
of these men brought forward a plausible accusation 
of improper conduct on the part of the General while 
in the field. An investigation was at once de- 
manded, and while it was in progress, undecided, 
the General's friends too hastily brought before 
Congress an attempt to do him peculiar honor. A 
resolution was offered, presenting the thanks of 
Congress to Governor Isaac Shelby, of Kentucky, 
and General William Henry Harrison, and ordering 
two gold medals to be struck and given to them in 
commemoration of their services in the campaign of 
Upper Canada. 

Nobody in the West had been at all troubled by 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 105 

any charges affecting Harrison's integrity, and no 
proper estimate had been made of their influence 
upon men who did not know him. He was not an 
extreme political partisan, and was not supposed to 
be an object of partisan rancor. To the great sur- 
prise of his admirers, nevertheless, a motion made 
in the Senate to strike out his name from the reso- 
lution was adopted by a vote of thirteen to eleven. 
Some of the best men in the nation thereby declared 
their sense of his unworthiness, or, at least, their 
doubt as to the result of the pending inquiry into 
his conduct. 

He felt the stab keenly, as his letters to his friends 
testify. It was as if an indelible stain had been put 
upon his honorable reputation. He wrote respect- 
fully concerning the body of men by whom the blow 
had been given, but said : " I am bound to believe 
that the majority, at least, acted from correct prin- 
ciples, but on a subject so important to an individ- 
ual, upon a vote which was to attach disgrace to his 
character which will follow him to his grave, and 
which will cause the blush to rise upon the cheek of 
his children, should they not have paused ?" 

No such mark of dishonor was to be fixed upon 
him. The report made to Congress with reference 
to the charges, wiped them all away, and declared 
that " General Harrison stands above suspicion." 
The people of Ohio re-elected him to Congress, and, 
March 30th, 1818, the resolution of thanks and 
medals passed the Senate unanimously, and received 
but one negative vote in the House of Representa- 
tives. 



lo6 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

While in Congress, General Harrison, as a rule, 
left the field of finance and current politics to other 
men, although he took a sufificient part in all import- 
ant discussions, and warmly defended himself from 
a charge made by John Randolph, of Roanoke, that 
he was a Federalist. He gave his especial attention 
to Western lands, Indian affairs, and, more than all, 
to the proper organization of the national militia. 
He made one record of peculiar importance and sig- 
nificance, for he voted against the proposition to 
restrict the people of the Missouri Territory from 
organizing as a State, with a clause in their consti- 
tution permitting slavery. He declared his belief 
that the people should be free to regulate their own 
domestic institutions, and the position he took cost 
him a defeat when he asked a re-election by the 
people of the State of Ohio. 

The voters of his own district elected him a mem- 
ber of the State Senate in 1819, and were entirely 
satisfied with the manner in which he served them. 

He was chosen a Presidential elector in 1820, and 
cast his vote, as did all other electors, that year, for 
James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins. Four 
years later, he indicated not only personal attach- 
ment but future political affiliations, by casting a 
similar electoral vote for Henry Clay. 

In 1824, the State of Ohio chose General Harrison 
to represent it in the Senate of the United States. 
His term of service in that body was very much like 
a continuation of his course in the Lower House. 
He was a hard-working, useful member, very effec- 
tive in debate, without being a great orator ; much 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 107 

deferred to when Western affairs were under discus- 
sion ; personally popular among his dignified associ- 
ates, and notably devoid of the extreme party rancor 
which had succeeded to what had been described as 
" the era of good feeling." 

In the Winter of the year 1 8 19, while yet a mem- 
ber of the House, General Harrison cast one vote and 
made one speech which was to have an important 
effect upon his subsequent career. During the de- 
bate upon Henry Clay's famous resolution, declar- 
ing that General Jackson had exceeded his lawful 
authority in his conduct of the Florida or Creek 
campaign, Harrison found himself in a peculiarly 
delicate position. Jackson's military fame had first 
rivalled and then eclipsed his own. He had seemed 
to step out of the army that Jackson might step in, 
and the latter had not hesitated to make caustic 
criticisms upon Harrison's military career. There 
was no doubt whatever that the laws of nations, the 
instructions of the War Department, and the Con- 
stitution of the United States had been roughly 
pushed aside by General Jackson in his headlong 
dash over the Spanish border, and it was inevitable 
that Harrison should formally support Clay's reso- 
lution. He did so, but in a speech of almost exces- 
sive panegyric of the hero of New Orleans. It was 
a very eloquent eulogy, but General Jackson never 
forgave the adverse vote which it was intended to 
explain and sweeten. He took the first opportunity 
afterward given him for expressing his resentment. 

In 1828, President John Quincy Adams appointed 
General Harrison Minister Plenipotentiary of the 



lo8 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

United States, to the new republic of Colombia, 
and the appointment was accepted. The General 
reached Colombia in December, 1828, and found a 
state of affairs which might well have puzzled a 
more experienced diplomatist. Party strife raged 
with a bitterness which fell little short of civil war, 
and the military party favored a dictatorship to be 
assumed by the patriot leader, Simon Bolivar. The 
aristocratic party had imbibed a supicious jealousy 
of the representative of the United States, the very 
simplicity of whose manners repelled them, and he 
was subjected to annoyances from the outset. He 
acquired the personal friendship of Bolivar, but the 
very able arguments which he addressed to that 
leader, on behalf of constitutional liberty, offered a 
lame pretext for his recall as a meddler. 

General Harrison had not been a Jackson Demo- 
crat in the fierce political canvass of 1828, and the 
new President of the United States had hardly been 
sworn in, March 4th, 1829, before the recall of the 
Minister to Colombia was decided upon. His re- 
moval from office was unaccompanied by any suit- 
able provision for his return to his own country, and 
he was permitted to get back as best he might at 
his own expense. Owing to the absence of com- 
merce between the two republics, and the scarcity of 
vessels able to give a wandering American diploma- 
tist a lift, three full months were consumed on the 
way, amid all sorts of annoyances, and General 
Jackson may be said to have obtained some satis- 
faction for Harrison's part in Clay's vote of censure. 

Bolivar did not participate in the criticism made 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 1 09 

upon the course pursued by the recalled minister, 
and there was afterward a friendly exchange of let- 
ters between them. 

Harrison returned to a country which had under- 
gone a political revolution. All other political fac- 
tions had been temporarily submerged in the great 
wave of Andrew Jackson's personal ascendency. In 
all the departments of government, not only at 
Washington but throughout the land, old incum- 
bents were going out of office, and the hottest par- 
tisans of the new order of things were going in. 

The Senate fought hard against several of Jack- 
son's nominations, while helplessly confirming the 
greater part of them as fast as sent in. It was 
quickly understood that the President proposed to 
be absolute ruler of the party which he, aided by 
Martin Van Burcn and a few other unsurpassed 
political managers, might be said to have created. 
By means of the thoroughly drilled and devoted 
organization they controlled, the country was to be 
ruled as with a rod of iron. It had great need of a 
strong and positive administration, with small refer- 
ence to any incidental and temporary harm which 
that administration, guided by men of genuine abil- 
ity and sincere patriotism, was at all likely to ac- 
complish. The work before General Jackson was 
one of reform and consolidation, and yet there was 
an absolute certainty that he would exhaust his 
party and his popularity in doing it. 

Such a man as General Harrison, dismissed from 
office as a pronounced opponent of the Administra- 
tion, had no immediate hope for political prefer- 



no WILLIAM IIRNKY IIAKRISOX. 

ment. He did not seek any, but retired to his farm 
at North Bend, and devoted himself to the restora- 
tion of his seriously disordered private affairs. It 
was a good farm, and he was a reasonably good 
farmer, but in that day it was not easy for any man 
to obtain anything more than a comfortable living 
from the best of land. He looked around him for 
the means of increasing an income which was much 
too narrow to meet the demands of a large and ex- 
pensive family. He was ignorant of merchandise, 
but there was a steady sale for whiskey, and, with- 
out proper consideration of the moralities involved, 
he erected a distillery for the profitable consump- 
tion of his ample corn crops. It was a business ex- 
periment which his conscience shortly compelled 
him to abandon, and the distillery was abolished. 
He had been a temperate man all his life, and he 
now not only adopted a very practical temperance 
measure, but came out publicly with his reasons. 
He was one of the founders of the Agricultural 
Society of Hamilton County, Ohio, in which Cin- 
cinnati is situated, and was elected President of it 
soon after his return from Colombia. He delivered 
an address before it, at its annual meeting in 1831, 
in which he took strong ground, and pleaded elo- 
quently against the vice of drunkenness and the 
wickedness of manufacturing whiskey. He said 
that he could so speak of the evil of " turning the 
staff of life into an article which is so destructive of 
health and happiness, because in that way I have 
sinned myself, but in that way I shall sin no more." 
The temperance movement, as it now exists, had 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. IH 

not then begun, and it required more than ordinary- 
courage and devotion to principle for a politician, if 
the General could fairly be called one, to come out 
alone against one of the most powerful interests of 
his own section and of the whole country. 

The hopeless campaign against the overshadow- 
ing Jackson ascendency, in 1832, did not draw Har- 
rison away from his farm and his family as an aspir- 
ant for office, but his political position was definitely 
maintained as an anti-Jackson man and a warm 
supporter of Henry Clay. The needed addition to 
his income was provided for, however, in a manner 
which is very well described by the French traveller, 
Chevalier, in one of his published letters. He vis- 
ited the Western States, and spent some time at 
Cincinnati. 

" I had observed at the hotel table," wrote M. 
Chevalier, " a man about the medium height, stout 
and muscular, and about the age of sixty years, yet 
with the active step and lively air of youth. I had 
been struck by his open and cheerful expression, the 
amenity of his frank and certain air of command, 
which appeared in spite of his plain dress. ' That 
is,' said my friend, ' General Harrison, Clerk of the 
Cincinnati Court of Common Pleas.' 'What? 
General Harrison, of Tippecanoe and the Thames ?' 
* The same ; the ex-general ; the conqueror of Te- 
cumseh and Proctor ; the avenger of our disasters 
on the Raisin and at Detroit ; the ex-Governor of 
the Territory of Indiana ; the cx-Senator in Con- 
gress ; the ex-Minister of the United States to one 
of the South American republics. He has grown 



112 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

old in the service of his country, he has passed 
twenty years of his hfe in those fierce wars with the 
Indians, in which there is less glory to be won but 
more dangers to be encountered than at Tivoli and 
Austerlitz. He is now poor, with a numerous 
family, neglected by the Federal Government, al- 
though yet vigorous, because he had the indepen- 
dence to think for himself. As the opposition is in 
the majority here, his friends bethought themselves 
of coming to his relief, by removing the Clerk of 
Common Pleas, who was a Jackson man, and giving 
him the place, which is a lucrative one, as a sort of 
retiring pension. His friends in the East talk of 
making him President of the United States. Mean- 
while, we have made him clerk of an inferior court. 

The talk of a Presidential nomination referred to 
in the letter of M. Chevalier took definite form in 
the year 1836. The Jacksonian Democracy was 
united upon Martin Van Buren and Richard M. 
Johnson, while the opposition was divided. The 
electoral votes of Tennessee and Georgia were given 
to Judge White. South Carolina voted for Willie 
P. Mangum. Massachusetts named Daniel Web- 
ster. The Whig Party proper nominated William 
Henry Harrison, of Ohio, and Francis Granger, of 
New York, and secured for them seven States with 
seventy-three electoral votes. Mr. Van Buren ob- 
tained one hundred and seventy votes, and was 
elected, but Colonel Johnson failed of an election 
by the people, and one was afterward given him by 
the Senate. The result convinced the country that 
the magic of General Jackson's personal influence 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 113 

had lost its power, or could not be transferred to 
another. At the same time it was evident that the 
Whig Party possessed a candidate with a strong 
hold upon the popular good-will. During the can- 
vass, in 1836, General Harrison paid a visit to Phil- 
adelphia, and a grand reception had been prepared 
for him by his party friends. Enthusiasm ran high, 
for when the horses of the carriage in which he rode 
became restive, the shouting throng unhitched them, 
and themselves drew their candidate through the 
streets of Philadelphia. 

There were four years more of steady growth for 
the Whig Party, favored and fostered by all the 
financial and other disorders of the affairs of the 
nation, which men could rightly or wrongly charge 
upon the Jackson Administration. Mr, Van Buren 
had inherited everything, except the old general's 
iron hold upon his partisans, and these were drop- 
ping away in all directions. 

In the autumn of the year 1838 an anti-Masonic 
National Convention, representing what had for a 
time been a faction of considerable strength in some 
of the States, offered General Harrison a Presi- 
dential nomination, and he formally accepted it, for 
the experience of 1836 was a warning against throw- 
ing away any element of support. About a year 
later, the Whig Party held its National Convention 
at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and a large part of the 
delegates went to it with a strong disposition to seek 
success this time with Henry Clay or Daniel Webster, 
or even with one of several other well known, 
trusted, and honored statesmen. There was a com- 



114 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

petition which was not without its bitternesses, but it 
was discovered that the kind of leadership which 
these men had already exercised had disqualified 
them for the other kind of leadership now required. 
Their record was too clear and pronounced with 
reference to vexatious questions which must be put 
aside or compromised for the sake of united party 
action. 

The only candidate of sufficient prominence, 
whose name would not drive away a dangerously 
large number of votes, sectionally or otherwise, v/as 
William Henry Harrison, and a unanimous nom- 
ination was finally given him. It was even more 
difficult to agree upon the right man for Vice-Presi- 
dent, and the delegates, when they went home, 
were altogether unable to tell upon what ground 
they selected John Tyler of Virginia. They did 
so, however, and one of the notable campaigns of 
American political history was soon stirring up the 
country. Mr, Van Buren had received a second 
nomination, largely through the personal influence 
yet exercised in his behalf by Jackson, and yet more 
by his own influence over the office-holding, work- 
ing politicians of his party. The party itself can 
hardly be said to have nominated him. General 
Jackson did not help him at all, moreover, by a 
letter he wrote, and which was printed, in which he 
spoke slightingly of General Harrison's merits as a 
military commander. The Whigs replied with ex- 
travagant accounts of Harrison's feats among the 
Indians and British, and sang songs which had 
choruses calling for " Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 115 

It was what was known as " the log-cabin cam- 
paign." Some over-critical Democratic writers, for- 
getting how Jackson had been elected, described 
Harrison as a rough frontiersman, who lived in a 
log cabin at North Bend, and drank nothing but 
hard cider. That was worth thousands of votes to 
the Whigs. They carried log cabins in their pro- 
cessions, struck and distributed numberless log-cabin 
medals, and the barbecues they held everywhere in 
imitation of the tactics by means of which Martin 
Van Buren and his helpers had built up the Jack- 
sonian Democracy, were supplied with unlimited 
cider. The political questions to be decided by the 
election were differently explained by stump-speak- 
ers in different localities, and it may be that not 
many men could have been found capable of telling 
definitely what they were. There is not anybody 
now living who could do so. It was a log-cabin 
campaign, and it was a magnificent success. The 
Democratic Party gave Mr. Van Buren one million 
one hundred and twenty-six thousand one hundred 
and thirty-seven votes, and enough of them joined 
the opposition to give Harrison and Tyler one mill- 
ion two hundred and sixty-nine thousand seven 
hundred and sixty-three votes. The nominal Whig 
majority was only a hundred and forty-three thou- 
sand six hundred and forty-six, but this was so dis- 
tributed among the States that, when the electoral 
votes were counted, Harrison and Tyler had two 
hundred and thirty-four out of two hundred and 
ninety-four votes. It was a majority forming less 
than six per cent of the whole vote, and would have 



Ii6 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

been lost if the Whig leaders had neglected any of 
the several political elements which they were able 
to combine for that election only under General 
Harrison. 

It was another political revolution, and the Whig 
Party leaders determined to make the most of it. 
With one voice they demanded of Harrison that 
their party opponents should be removed from every 
office, great or small, to which his power extended. 
They proposed a proscription even more sweeping 
than Jackson's had been, and with tenfold better 
cause. Men -who had obtained places for party ser- 
vices, and held them as party servants, had no per- 
sonal right to complain, if they were dismissed when 
their places were needed for similar payments to 
other men. The injury done was to the entire 
nation. It was a most pernicious system, full of 
harm to the public service, but its evils were over- 
looked by patriotic men in the struggle for power, 
and a clean sweep was determined upon. 

The President-elect found that the most harassing 
and fatiguing part of the toils before him began 
with his election rather than with his inauguration. 

The genius and imperious will of Henry Clay, the 
towering intellectual strength of Daniel Webster, 
the learning, the capacity, the experience and high 
reputation of at least a dozen other Whig leaders, 
made it impossible for any man less than a miracle 
in human form to be the controlling head of such a 
party. Harrison was a man of excellent abilities 
and accustomed to command, but some of these 
men were head and shoulders above him in all the 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 1 17 

essential elements of statesmanship. When he 
made Daniel Webster Secretary of State, and filled 
the other seats in his Cabinet with strong men, he 
hoped for some relief from the pressure of his new 
and strange position, but the desired improvement 
was not obtained. He discovered that the acknowl- 
edged leader of the party, Henry Clay, had not 
yielded one tittle of his assumed right to be almost 
obeyed by any Whig who might happen to become 
President. It was an utter impossibility to appoint 
all men to all offices, or to satisfy the great party 
leaders whose claims were daily and hourly press- 
ing. 

March 4th, 1841, arrived, and William Henry 
Harrison was duly inaugurated President of the 
United States. He was sixty-eight years old, and 
while he still seemed erect and vigorous, he had 
lost the elasticity which had distinguished him, and 
he experienced somewhat the effects of his earlier 
toils and exposures. He took up with anxious 
energy the perplexing duty of reappointing the civil 
service of the United States in a manner to satisfy 
the conflicting demands of the men who had elected 
him. The position and course of his administration, 
its L easures and its policy, at home and abroad, 
were in other hands than his, and his perception of 
that fact did not at all diminish his deep sense of 
responsibility. It was a tremendous change from 
the quiet of North Bend and the humdrum routine 
duties of the Cincinnati Court of Common Pleas. 
The Executive Mansion was daily beset and be- 
sieged by swarms of hungry ofHce-seekers. The 



Ii8 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

Treasury was in a condition which demanded prompt 
legislative relief. The defeated Democracy, through 
its party press, was heaping vituperation upon the 
man who was removing so many Democrats from 
office. Extreme factionists. North and South, were 
clamorously demanding of the new Administration 
some act or voice committing it for or against the 
annexation of Texas, a national bank, a new tariff, 
no tariff, the extension of slavery into the Territories 
and other points of policy. The new President 
could not storm like Andrew Jackson, and he had 
not the cool tact of Martin Van Buren. He could 
receive all visitors with kindly courtesy and listen to 
whatever might be said, and then he lacked the 
faculty of subsequently putting away from him any 
undue interest created. His family had not come 
to Washington with him, intending to remain at 
North Bend until Summer, and it may be that the 
old man missed the home care and comfort to which 
he was accustomed. In less than three weeks he 
was visibly failing, and by March 25th he was 
really ill, although he refused to so consider him- 
self. On the 27th he had a severe chill. He had 
been caught in a shower while taking a walk, and 
what seemed a slight cold had been hanging around 
him. It had been, in fact, the first stages of pneu- 
monia, and the strength to resist it with was wasted 
in work, and worry, and anxiety. By the first day 
of April he was confined to his bed, but even then 
his attending physicians did not apprehend a fatal 
result. They were dealing only with pneumonia — - 
that is, with a disorder of the body, when to the 



WILLIAM IIE.XRY HARRISON. 119 

destructive power of this was added the feverish 
drain upon the vital forces which went on through 
the President's overtaxed mind. He sank rapidly, 
and on April 4th, just one month after his in- 
auguration, he closed his eyes forever. Toward 
the end, he said to his physicians : " My last wish 
is that the principles of the Government shall be 
carried out. I ask nothing more." 

He did not know it, but he had worn himself out 
at last in an overstrained effort to fulfil that very 
patriotic aspiration. 

The death of President Harrison produced a pro- 
found effect upon the startled nation. There were 
imposing funeral ceremonies at Washington, and 
special religious services were held in many churches 
throughout the country. He had never been a 
church-member, although a professed believer of 
the Christian religion, but when he came to Wash- 
ington had declared his intention of uniting publicly 
at an early day with the Episcopal Church, to which 
his views were inclined. 

Immediately on assuming office, President Tyler 
issued a proclamation appointing May 14th, 1841, 
a day of national fasting and prayer, on account of 
the great loss which the country had sustained, and 
it was all the more generally observed, because a 
large part of the people were full of foreboding 
anxiety concerning the consequences of the sudden 
change in the control of public affairs. 

The family of General Harrison had been large. 
At the time of his death, his wife, one son, and 
three married daughters were living, while three 



I20 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

sons and a daughter had reached maturity, had 
married and had passed away before him. 

The man who was President for one month is 
generally better remembered in connection with the 
name of Tecumseh, but his real title to lasting honor 
is not as a party leader or as a successful general, 
but as the best and greatest of Indian Commission- 
ers, and as the pioneer Governor of the Indiana 
Territory. 



Li^,es of the Presidents of the United States. 



JOHN TYLER. 

TENTH PRESIDENT 
By WILLIAM O. STODDARD. 

CHAPTER L 

The Tyler Family-Birth of John Tyler-Early 
Edueation-Admitted to the Bar-Sent to the State 
Legislature-Eleeted to Congress-Old-Time 1 oh- 
tics. 

THE leading families of the Virginia colony were 
for the greater part aristocratic and royalist in their 
origin and tendencies. There were a few excep- 
tions, such as the Cromwellian Harrisons, and men 
of yeoman ancestry, like the Jeffersons. It was 
therefore somewhat remarkable that the successive 
stages of the stormy progress toward an armed re- 
sistance of kingly authority developed so very few 
Tories in the loyal Old Dominion. Quite a number 
of individuals of rank and distinction did, indeed, re- 
fuse to the very last, to surrender their allegiance 
to the British Crown, and some of them sailed away 
in the fleet which raceived as a fugitive the last 
royal governor. 



2 JOHN TYLER. 

There were, however, sufficiently good reasons 
why the list of Tory families was not larger. The 
struggle for colonial independence retained, year 
after year, the form of a strictly lawful opposi- 
tion to obnoxious measures, which the colonists 
persistently attributed to the King's ministers and 
not to the King himself. Nearly every prominent 
man in Virginia was a rebel against the ministry, 
before he dreamed of being a rebel of any other 
kind. The Lexington fight and the siege of Boston 
and the burning of Norfolk were required to cure 
the extreme loyalism of scores of the great landed 
proprietors and other social magnates. 

Among the families carried along by the growing 
tide of patriotism were the Tylers. One of them 
had been marshal of the colony by royal appoint- 
ment, and his son, John Tyler, became at an early 
age a member of the House of Burgesses. He was 
re-elected, year after year, to discuss with Harrison, 
and Pendleton, and Randolph, and Colonel Wash- 
ington, and other dignified colonial gentlemen, the 
outrageous conduct of the King's ministers and the 
great danger lest the turbulent Massachusetts men, 
particularly the mob of Boston, should carry their 
practical protests too far. At last they were all called 
upon to consider the Boston Port Bill, and to hear 
the burning words of Patrick Henry. Then stout 
Ben Harrison, Speaker of the Virginia House of 
Delegates, was sent to the Continental Congress, 
and John Tyler was chosen to succeed him as 
Speaker. 

Durinef all the War of the Revolution and after- 



JOHN TYLER. 3 

ward, John Tyler continued to hold an influential 
position among the public men of Virginia. His 
wife, Mary Armistead, was also of patriotic ancestry 
and connections. Although a lawyer in good prac- 
tice, Mr. Tyler was not a rich man, for fees were 
small in those days. He held some property at 
Charles City, Charles City County, where he re- 
sided, and here, on March 29th, 1790, was born a 
son, named after him, John Tyler, who was in due 
time to become President of the United States. 

Childhood and boyhood wore pleasant days for a 
little Virginian whose life began in such a home. 
He knew but little of the troubles of the period of 
doubt and difficulty which immediately followed the 
war for independence, and he was only a six-year- 
old boy when George Washington delivered his 
Farewell Address. Education began at home, in a 
manner which made all subsequent opportunities of 
greater value, and these also were in due season pro- 
vided for him. From the very cradle he was put 
into a course of training, intentionally or not, which 
was sure to give him an ambition for following in 
the footsteps of his father. He exhibited tokens of 
more than ordinary capacity, even in boyhood. His 
memory was excellent, he was fond of books, he 
was industrious, and he readily mastered the not 
very severe course of studies required to prepare 
him for admission to the College of William and 
Mary. Here also he acquitted himself uncommonly 
well for so young a student, and was graduated in 
the year 1806, a scholar while yet a boy. 

A professional career was in perfect readiness for 



4 JOHN TYLER. 

him, and he had no other idea than that he had 
been born to be a lawyer and rise to eminence at 
the Virginia bar. He at once began the study of 
the law in his father's of^ce, but still in connection 
with the university. He was fond of the pleasant 
society which on all sides opened its doors to him, 
and in which his ready wit, self-possession, and 
kindly, easy manners, made him exceedingly pop- 
ular ; but he did not permit it to_draw him too 
much away from his dryer duties. Dry enough was 
the work before a law student in those days, but 
with such peculiar advantages it was a matter of 
course that young Tyler should be early admitted 
to practice. The law was not the only profession 
for which he had been preparing, and upon the 
active practice of which he was about to enter. By 
natural gifts, training, association, inheritance, and 
by all the eager aspirations of his young ambition, 
John Tyler was a politician. 

His father, the former Speaker of the rebel House 
of Burgesses, was a warm supporter of Jefferson 
and Madison, and, in the year 1808, the people of 
Virginia made him Governor of the State. By that 
very vote they gave his son and law student an im- 
portant step in the ladder of political promotion. 
The young man had already made his mark as a 
fluent stump orator, an ardent Jeffersonian. It was 
easy to obtain for him a nomination to the Assem- 
bly, and he was elected, and took his seat when he 
was barely twenty-one years of age. 

Five years of consecutive service in the Legisla- 
ture, alternated with the duties of an increasing law 



JOHN TYLER. 5 

practice, followed that first election. Beginning 
with a social, political, and professional position won 
for him by his father, the young man's ambition 
found no important barrier in its way except the 
fact that his native State seemed to swarm with 
brilliant youths eager for distinction, while it was 
also rich in middle-aged and elderly gentlemen, 
whose names and services were identified with the 
national history, and who seemed in little haste to 
make room for their juniors. _ , 

Mr. Tyler's party did not enjoy an undisputed 
ascendency, however, and had need of young and 
vigorous partisans of thorough training and good 
capacity. He was a peculiarly effective and very 
popular stump speaker in campaign after campaign, 
and his continuous services received full recogni- 
tion. In the year 1816 he was elected to the United 
States House of Representatives, taking his seat as 
one of its youngest members. Among all its new 
men, however, there could not have been a consid- 
erable number, young or old, who had served a 
more thorough political apprenticeship. 

The years of his membership of the Virginia As- 
sembly had included the stirring events of the War 
of 18 12, the campaigns of Harrison and Jackson, 
treaties with England and with other powers, and 
the rapid development of the Western country. 
The freedom of the seas had been acquired for 
American commerce, and the United States had 
been fully recognized as a member of the family of 
nations. Great changes had taken place in the 
affairs of Europe. Old kingdoms and dynasties had 



6 JOHN TYLER. 

disappeared, or had passed through great revolu- 
tions, and new States had risen. The face of the 
whole world had undergone a sort of transformation 
since John Tyler's father had presided over the 
Virginia Legislature, and even since the young man's 
own election as a member of that body, American 
politics had drifted on into the first stage of an en- 
tirely new era. 

The old Federal Party, which had broken down 
hopelessly at the first election of Thomas Jefferson, 
maintained its organization with slowly-yielding ob- 
stinacy until the Presidential campaign of 1816. It 
was able to oppose James Monroe in the electoral 
college of that year, with but thirty-four votes 
against one hundred and eighty-three. So evident 
was it to the minds of all men that the lost ground 
of party power could never be regained, that the 
Federal leaders, as if with one accord, gave the mat- 
ter up, and all but a very few of them retired from 
public life. The younger men, who had for a time 
acted with them, afterward found themselves very 
willing to forget it, and anxious that others should do 
the same. In the earlier years of the Monroe Ad- 
ministration there seemed to be no party lines in ex- 
istence. The country was prosperous ; its Western 
and Southern wildernesses were settling fast ; its 
commerce was rapidly extending ; the people were 
weary of turmoils and strifes, of embargoes and 
wars. The " era of good feeling" had come, and 
old enemies believed themselves to have put away 
worn-out animosities forever. Sectional bitter- 
nesses seemed to slumber, and the head of Monroe's 



JOHN TYLER. 7 

Cabinet was John Quincy Adams, son of the last 
Federalist President. There were as many anti- 
slavery men in Virginia as in Massachusetts, and 
the " State Rights" school of politicians were as 
outspoken in New England as in South Carolina. 

The old leaders, even of the Republican Party, 
were rapidly passing away, and as yet the new men, 
with a few notable exceptions, were coming to the 
front slowly. These exceptions were in every in- 
stance men whose position grew out of their course 
with reference to the War of 1812. Either, like 
Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren, they had been 
prominent as war advocates, in National or State 
Legislatures, or, like Andrew Jackson and William 
Henry Harrison, they had successfully led armies 
in the field. John Tyler had no known relations 
whatever to the War of 18 12, and there were no 
great public questions under discussion to which he 
could at once attach his name as advocate or op- 
ponent. - "^ 

If a person visiting the city of Washington, at the 
present day, while Congress is in session, will go to 
the Capitol, enter the House of Representatives, 
and look around him, he will see some twenty 
scores of ve ry intellige nt-looking gentlemen. ^ Among 
them, here and there, he will find a face whose 
printed portraits have made him familiar with it. 
Some friend standing by may be able to give him 
the names of a dozen or twenty more who have at- 
tained national reputations and are looked upon as 
men of exceptional capacity and influence. 

If he should ask concerning all the remainder, 



8 JOHN TYLER. 

"Who are they?" a perfect answer would be, 
" They are John Tyler. Each is a man of sufficient 
note in his own district to be selected as its repre- 
sentative ; each has his work to do in his commit- 
tees, and his voice may sometimes be heard upon 
the floor ; each, however, is the member of a party 
and of a faction in a party, and his vote is generally 
as well ascertained before he has given it as after- 
ward. Not one of them has ever as yet originated 
any brilliant or startling piece of legislation. The 
great majority of them are men of education and 
practical ability, and can make good and even elo- 
quent speeches. Any man among them may yet be 
President, but you can't name him." 

Congress contained fewer men in the days of 
James Monroe than it does now, and its minor indi- 
viduals were not so completely hidden in a crowd. 
John Tyler's course was closely watched by his con- 
stituents, and was to most of them fairly satisfac- 
tory. He was comparatively poor, but his social 
position was good, and his genial disposition and 
polished manners made him welcome in the best 
circles of the capital, including the brilliant draw- 
ing rooms of Mrs. Monroe. 

There was something almost monotonous in 
American political life during the years 1816 and 
18 17, although it was known that Mr. Monroe and 
Mr. Adams were negotiating for the purchase of 
Florida from Spain, and although leading men were 
striving anxiously to discover what might be their 
own views, and those of the people concerning the 
tariff and internal improvements. The United 



JOHN TYLER. 9 

States Bank was for the time somewhat in the back- 
ground. Early in the year 1818, however, the 
general quiet received a severe shaking, and a 
great deal was done for the party politics of the 
future. 

President Monroe instructed General Jackson to 
gather a sufficient number of riflemen, and suppress 
the hostile Creeks and Seminoles of the Southern 
border. The order was obeyed with the most un- 
looked-for vigor. The Indians were chastised thor- 
oughly, but they were also pursued across the line 
into Spanish territory, a Spanish fort was taken, 
and, worse than that, two Englishmen, named 
Arbuthnot and Ambrister, were hanged upon a 
charge of inciting Indian hostilities. 

The Administration was exceedingly annoyed and 
puzzled, with the exception of John Quincy Adams, 
who fully approved of General Jackson's action, 
but the President adopted so skilfully indefinite a 
position that his nominal political supporters were 
left entirely free to take one side or the other of the 
stormy disputes which followed. They divided, 
accordingly. The proper committees brought for- 
ward in House and Senate resolutions of disap- 
proval. In the Upper House these lay upon the 
table until they were forgotten. In the Lower 
House they were discussed in a debate which lasted 
almost a month, nearly all the speakers declaring or 
admitting that Jackson had exceeded authority, and 
disregarded legal technicalities, but nearly all join- 
ing eulogy with their criticisms. The final vote was 
in the General's favor, but he never forgave the men 



lO JOHN TYLER. 

who voted against him, no matter how much praise 
they added to their adverse decision. Among those 
who at this time were made to range themselves as 
his opponents were Henry Clay and General Harri- 
son. Among those who did not do so was John 
Tyler, 

During that same winter session of i8 18-19, the 
slavery question first became dangerously prom- 
inent. The bill for the admission of Missouri as a 
State of the Union came before Congress, and was 
defeated because of the clause in its proposed con- 
stitution permitting the introduction of slaves. 
There were very few Abolitionists in the country, 
and not any in Congress, but a clear majority of the 
people of the North, and a very respectable minority 
of the people of the South, were opposed to the ex- 
tension of what they perceived to be a growing peril. 
Both at the North and at the South, however, there 
was yet another class of men who believed in the 
right of each State and of each community organ- 
izing as a State, to regulate its domestic institutions 
in the manner its own majority of voters might de- 
cide. Among these was General Harrison, and Mr, 
Tyler himself took the same ground, rather than as 
an extreme advocate of slavery or its extension. 
He was not, however, like John Quincy Adams, in 
any doubt as to his views upon the main ques- 
tion of the right of the Federal Government to 
meddle with the subject of human bondage. In his 
opinion, then and afterward, a State boundary line 
protected all the affairs of whatever nature belong- 
ing to the several commonwealths from any interfer- 



JOHN TYLER. II 1 

ence not explicitly provided for by the Constitution 
of the United States. He was what was called a 
"strict Constructionist," and his whole political 
career and conduct must be judged with reference \ 
to the doctrine which was as his corner-stone. | 
Every tendency toward a centralization of the | 
power of the Republic, in the hands of the President / 
or of Congress, was sure to be jealously watched and \^ ^hf 
zealously opposed by every man who had been con- \l "^ 
firmed in " strict construction" principles. — xA/^jC 

Propositions for internal improvements, to be 
made by the Federal Government, were by such 
men regarded as so many covert assaults upon the 
reserved rights of the States. They had at first ac- 
cepted the Constitution doubtfully, and had been 
slow to yield each separate power contained in it, 
even that of regulating commerce. 

With reference to a Bank of the United States, as 
the central office of branches in the several States, 
Mr. Tyler's views were not clear at the beginning, 
but they became so as soon as a constitutional point 
was made in its favor by what all State rights men 
regarded as a usurpation of undue authority by 
President Jackson. 

During Mr. Tyler's term of service in Congress, 
his position became fairly well defined upon nearly 
all of the new questions arising, so far as their shape 
permitted. At the same time he earned for himself 
a reputation as a prompt and capable debater, and 
as an industrious, well-informed, and capable legis- 
lator. If he did not go beyond that, it might well 
be said that there had been no opportunity given 



12 JOHN TYLER. 

him. He acquired a familiar acquaintance with 
national affairs, made friendships, enjoyed himself 
socially, and seemed to have attained a very envi- 
able degree of advancement for a politician, who 
was, after all, so very young. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Political Situation — State Rights and Strict Con- 
struction — Adams and Jackson — Johi Tyler Gov- 
ernor of Virginia — United States Sejiator — Webster 
and Hayne — Nullificatioji — Tyler s Vote Against 
the Force Bill — Re-elected. 

The close of Mr. Monroe's first term as President 
of the United States found the country still desti- 
tute of political parties. The Republican Party had 
apparently absorbed all factions, and men in Con- 
gress were curiously free to vote very much as they 
pleased. They acted for or against the measures 
which, from time to time, were favored by the ad- 
ministration of Mr. Monroe, without any prejudice 
whatever relating to him. When his time came for 
the re-election believed to be his due, there was no 
faction worth naming which had the will or the pre- 
sumption to oppose him. His personal popularity 
was phenomenal. He had made extended tours 
through the country. North and South, and had 
everywhere been received in a manner utterly dis- 
couraging to any possible rival. There was, there- 
fore, no considerable resistance to him, and the elec- 
toral college of the year 1820 contained but one 
dissenting voice. 

Mr. Tyler's district, nevertheless, was ready for a 
change in its representation in Congress, and he was 



14 JOHN TYLER. 

almost as willing to return to his neglected law 
practice. In the year 1821 he was once more hard 
at work in the Virginia courts adding materially to 
his income, and at the same time rapidly increasing 
his reputation as a lawyer. His personal popularity 
was deservedly great, for no man who met him could 
fail to perceive that his kindness of manner was the 
expression of genuine benevolence of disposition. 
He was liberal to a fault, and peculiarly given to 
the hospitalities which Virginia society delighted in. 
All men liked John Tyler, and a large majority of 
the people of Virginia were in very fair accord with 
his extreme views upon State rights and the con- 
struction of the Constitution. They were the ab- 
stract doctrines of Thomas Jefferson and James 
Madison carried out to conclusions, which were 
probably never reached by either of those statesmen, 
but which were yet described by political leaders in 
other States as those of "the Virginia school." 
These doctrines had no better representative than 
Mr. Tyler, and that fact was one day to become of 
national importance. 

The four years of Mr. Monroe's second term did 
not belong to the ** era of good feeling," for the 
party which had held together so well during six 
successive Presidential terms was rapidly going to 
pieces. 

Mr. Tyler was a strict Constructionist in party 
matters, as well as in constitutional law, and was 
pretty sure to be found with that particular fragment 
of the general party wreck which might seem to 
have the best claim to be considered the old ship 



JOHN TYLER, 15 

itself. When, therefore, a regular Congressional, 
caucus, such as had nominated Jefferson, Madison, 
and Monroe, came together and nominated William 
PL Crawford, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury, 
Mr. Tyler gave him his support, overlooking the 
somewhat narrow membership of the caucus, and 
was instrumental in giving him the undivided vote 
of the State of Virginia. 

Mr. Crawford claimed to be a perfect representa- 
tive of pure Republicanism, to be the regular nom- 
inee of the party, and, at the same time, to stand 
for State rights and the peculiar interests of the 
South. Shortly after the vote of the Congressional 
caucus, however, the Legislature of Tennessee nomi- 
nated Andrew Jackson. The friends of John Quincy 
Adams had put him before the people as in a man- 
ner entitled to the succession, and as an avowed 
enemy of the caucus system. 

The supporters of John C. Calhoun, of South 
Carolina, correctly asserted that he was every whit 
as zealous a defender of Southern interests as any 
other man could be. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, 
was also nominated, as a man who had strong claims 
upon the party and the nation. Other candidates 
named at first were shortly withdrawn, and the aim 
of Mr. Calhoun changed to the Vice-Presidency, 
which he obtained by an overwhelming majority. 
When the electoral votes for President were 
counted, Mr. Tyler's candidate, Mr. Crawford, 
stood third, with only forty-one votes. Below him 
was Henry Clay, with thirty-seven votes. Next 
above him was John Quincy Adams, with eighty- 



1 6 JOHN- TYLER. 

four votes, and at the head of the list was Andrew 
Jackson, with ninety-one. Well might an outsider 
have asked, " Which of these lists of votes repre- 
sents the Republican Party ?" 

Neither of them did so. The House of Repre- 
sentatives gave the Presidency to John Quincy 
Adams, but there were many reasons why the " Vir- 
ginia school" of statesmen and politicians could not 
be expected to support his administration. John 
Tyler and all men who agreed with him were sure 
to keenly scrutinize every public measure of a man 
whom they declared to have been born a Federalist, 
and who was known to believe in a liberal interpre- 
tation of the Constitution. When, shortly after the 
inauguration of Mr. Adams, the Tennessee Legisla- 
ture once more nominated Andrew Jackson as a 
Presidential candidate, Mr. Tyler and his associates 
fell into rank at once with the new movement. 
They were not at all aware that, in so doing, they ac- 
cepted a leader with no reverence for any constitu- 
tional interpretation, or for any State line which 
was greater than that which he had already shown 
for the boundary of Spanish Florida. 

The House of Representatives did not reach a 
solution of the electoral problem sent to it by the 
division of the votes of the colleges among the 
four candidates, until February 9th, 1825. General 
Jackson had believed himself the choice of the peo- 
ple, had expected to be also the choice of the House, 
and was bitterly disappointed. He remained in 
Washington long enough to witness the inaugura- 
tion of Mr. Adams, and, as the oldest member of 



JOHN TYLER. 17 

the Senate, to administer the oath of office to Vice- 
President Calhoun. Soon afterward he returned to 
his Hermitage home, resigned his place in the 
United States Senate, and accepted the renewed 
Presidential nomination enthusiastically given him 
by the Legislature of Tennessee. 

The Jackson movement quickened and strength- 
ened all the opposition in Congress to the adminis- 
tration of President Adams. There was a hardly 
accountable degree of sectional jealousy arrayed 
against him from the West and South, and it 
watched and criticised him as narrowly as did the 
strict Constructionists themselves. 

There were other elements at the North, in the 
Middle States, and elsewhere, commercial, social, 
and political, with some pretty lively sectionalism 
in New England, that were also sure to rally to his 
support, if he should ask for a second term as Presi- 
dent, and it was not possible for any man to make a 
trustworthy estimate of the relative strength of the 
opposing forces. 

There was one important element of party success 
which Mr. Adams neglected, while the most was 
made of it on behalf of his opponent. General 
Jackson could count among his friends at the West 
a number of exceedingly capable party managers. 
In the North, his long canvass was under the mas- 
terly management of Martin Van Buren. In Vir- 
ginia, the Andrew Jackson party followed the leader- 
ship at once assumed by John Tyler. No man bet- 
ter understood the people of the South, and particu- 
larly of his own State, and the new party there was 



JOHN TYLER. 

M rfkciolined a condition as in 
30on in almost as well d.scpl.n ^^ ^^^ 

New York or Tennessee In he fi ^y ^ ^^ ^^^^^ 
Adams Administrat,on .825, ^ 

John Tyler Governor °l^"^^'^ to confine his 

J The new governor d.d not propose t^._^._^_^_ ^^^ 

attention to the ^^''^^ *f " Utions of national 
popular pjnd was busy w. h ques ^^^^ 

policy, iln De-'"^^';;^2'in -hich he vigorously 
to the Legislature a me sage m „^,„ents 

denounced all '"f.^^"^^/"^ J /e" forth his well- 

,nder F«<^<=-\''r'; Served rights of the States. 

known views of *« '"^J^^ ,„tl accord with doc- 

^' f°raf:e;::nel:e - congress, and to th^ 

for another year, and a J-teoma ^^^ ^^^^ 

Ueved to be won when, January^^ .^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ 
Tyler was elected ^ ™e (oUowing. 

States for si=. y-^-''^°lfT;om Virginia took his 
When the new 5^"^'°;°^^ S^^^es could have 

^-'•"""rwhoTe'hon rrjfsuccess in hfe had 
been named whose ho ^ ^^^.^.^^ <^ , 

been greater. He haa ^, ^^,,,„g 

reputation wh>ch f«Vf '^ ^V nation. With- 
,,, one of the '"--'^".^r "lod high at the Vir- 
out being a great lawyer, , tie jur.sts 

giniabar, among a group o ^^ ^ ^ ,, 

He was not a g«at o« ° , ^^ _. ^^ d,s- 

such ability and skill *at he ^ 

advantage when defending h s pos.t ^^^^^ ^^^^ j^^ 
the most eloquent men of h,s time. 



JOHN TYLER. 19 

was to win or lose as a far seeing statesman was yet 
to be determined. He began his career in the Sen- 
ate as a man whose settled convictions made him 
the opponent of an administration headed by John 
Quincy Adams, with Henry Clay, the high-tariff 
advocate, as Secretary of State. 

The supporters of General Jackson worked hard 
in every corner of the country, while Mr. Adams 
and his friends did comparatively little to secure for 
him a re-election. 

In Congress, as among the people, there were now 
once more two distinct parties, although many men 
were not entirely sure which of them was best en- 
titled to be called the Republican Party. Perhaps 
the doubt was due, in large part, to the fact that 
neither faction had yet held a National Convention, 
or declared its principles and doctrines in set terms. 

The social life of the city of Washington had a 
character of its own in those days. Mr. and Mrs. 
Adams did not keep open house, and there was an 
air of New England quietness in the hospitalities of 
the Executive Mansion. The tone of other circles 
v/as that of the old Virginia and Maryland aristoc- 
racy, readily adopted by ladies and gentlemen from 
the North. 

The representatives of the West and Southwest 
found their places very much according to their in- 
dividual tastes and characters, and some of their 
coteries were such as Colonel Davy Crockett, the 
Arkansas bear hunter, felt entirely at home in. Sen- 
ator and ex-Governor John Tyler, representative of 
an old Virginia family, a poHshed gentleman, with 



20 JOHN TYLER. 

an accomplished wife, was regarded as a distinguished 
member of the most dignified society of the Capital, 
the only drawback being the fact that he was still in 
moderate pecuniary circumstances. 

There was a great deal of business done in the 
United States in the year 1828, but there was not 
as much legislative work as usual performed in Con- 
gress. Members of both Senate and House were 
more deeply interested in the party struggle than in 
any measure which might be brought before them. 
It was a campaign of bitter personal vituperation 
and animosities. The public press reeked with 
coarse calumnies of public men, in which not even 
their wives and families were spared. Everybody 
had cause for rejoicing when it was all over, although 
the result was a surprise to all but a very few. 

John Quincy Adams received eighty-three elec- 
toral votes in 1828, not one of them from a State 
south of the Potomac River. Andrew Jackson re- 
ceived one hundred and seventy-eight votes, only 
one of them from New England. The Middle 
States, excepting the Jackson vote of Pennsylvania, 
were divided, and the West went solidly for the 
hero of New Orleans. There was something omi- 
nous in the sectional features of the election returns. 
There was more in the character of the debates, 
which soon afterward began upon the floors of both 
Houses of Congress. 

The most pressing business before the Senate, 
after General Jackson took the oath of office as 
President, was in the shape of long lists of nomina- 
tions of Jacksonian politicians to the offices at the 



JOHN TYLER. 21 

disposal of the Administration. Never before, in 
the history of the country, had there been anything 
at all like it, and the General's wrath was shortly 
excited by the fact that the Senate presumed to 
discuss and criticise the men whose appointments he 
asked them to confirm. They actually rejected a 
few, but, before the work given them was com- 
pleted, Mr. Tyler and his Democratic fellow Sen- 
ators had aided in removing about six hundred and 
ninety public servants, with their local clerks and 
other subordinates. 

Even while that was going on, however, the 
President had made some pretty distinct announce- 
ments of the policy he proposed for his administra- 
tion. 

Upon the subject of State rights, he was vaguely 
and very incorrectly supposed to be in accord with 
John C, Calhoun, of South Carolina, elected Vice- 
President upon the same ticket with himself, and 
now for a time high in his esteem and confidence. 
Even John Tyler could have asked no more than 
that the President should listen to Mr. Calhoun. 

General Jackson's course in Congress while a 
member, and some things that he had said and writ- 
ten afterward, had indicated a leaning toward a pro- 
tective tariff and internal improvements, but there 
was nothing of importance about them in his inau- 
gural address, March 4th, 1829. There was not 
much in it, in fact, for anybody to either praise 
highly or find much fault with. When Congress re- 
assembled, in the following December, however, he 
was ready to say that the condition of the Treasury 



22 JOHN TYLER. 

was SO good that it was time to reduce the duties 
upon tea and coffee — two articles not produced in 
this country — and that recommendation looked like 
protectionism. 

The John Tyler school of politicians were watch- 
ing narrowly, and another clause in the same mes- 
sage suited them better. It suggested that any 
surplus which might probably be some day found in 
the Treasury, should be divided among the States, 
by them to be spent in public improvements. He 
added : 

" Nothing is clearer in my view than that we are chiefly in- 
debted for the success of the Constitution under which we are now 
acting, to the watchful and auxiliary operation of the State author- 
ities." 

The message dealt with Indian affairs and other 
subjects, and took no ground with reference to any 
of them upon which many men were likely to quar- 
rel with it, but it touched one subject of peculiar 
delicacy. It referred to the fact that the charter of 
the Bank of the United States would expire in the 
year 1836, that a renewal would doubtless be asked 
for, and added : " Both the constitutionality and 
the expediency of the law creating this bank are 
questioned by a large portion of our fellow-citizens, 
and it must be admitted by all that it has failed in 
the great end of establishing a uniform and sound 
currency." 

More was suggested, with a semblance of modera- 
tion which veiled the intense antagonism behind it, 
but it was a kind of declaration of war, nevertheless. 



JOHN TYLER. 23 

and with reference to this point also John Tyler at 
first found himself in apparent accord with General 
Jackson. 

The Administration had an overwhelming major- 
ity, nominally, in the Senate, and its candidate for 
Speaker of the House had received one hundred and 
fifty-two votes out of one hundred and ninety-one. 
The action of the Senate upon confirmations quickly 
declared the unsubmissive character of the majority 
there, and it was soon discovered that the House of 
Representatives contained a number of men who 
had voted for Jackson, yet now proposed to vote as 
they pleased, especially for a United States Bank 
and for internal improvements. Some of them were 
also high-tariff men, while a larger number consid- 
ered State rights an abstract question. 

That part of the President's Message relating to 
the bank was referred in the House of Representa- 
tives to the Committee of Ways and Means, who 
shortly reported strongly against the President, and 
in favor of the bank. Before the session was over, 
four anti-bank resolutions were quietly laid upon the 
table, and permitted to stay there. 

Several measures relating to the tariff were brought 
before Congress, and with reference to them the 
people of Georgia and other Southern States sent in 
very earnest protests against the protective system, 
as hurtful to their own and other agricultural in- 
terests. 

Various measures for spending money from an 
overflowing Treasury in prosecuting great works of 
public improvement were also pending, and in the 



24 JOHN TYLER. 

debates upon them John Tyler added materially to 
his reputation as an orator and statesman. 

The debates in Congress had thus far been con- 
ducted with a fair degree of good temper and pru- 
dence, although extreme views and sectional feeling 
had found occasional expression. From parts of the 
South, however, and notably from South Carolina, 
there had been reports of an exceedingly bitter and 
excited opposition to the existing tariff, and it was 
even asserted that serious trouble was brewing. 

The unquestioned leader of the strict Construc- 
tionists, in Congress and before the country, was 
John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. It was gener- 
ally well known that Mr. Tyler was as extreme in 
his opinions, or nearly so ; but decidedly the most 
eloquent advocate upon that side, Calhoun being in 
the chair as presiding officer, was Senator Hayne, 
of South Carolina. One day Senator Samuel A. 
Foot, of Connecticut, introduced a resolution pro- 
posing an inquiry into the expediency of suspending 
the sale of public lands for a time. There were legal 
and other points involved which gave Mr. Hayne an 
opportunity for a speech in which he set forth with 
his accustomed ability the position of the State rights 
theorists. He said, in the course of it : " I am one 
of those who believe that the very life of our system 
is the independence of the States, and that there is 
no evil more to be deprecated than the consolidation 
of this Government." 

The two most dangerous words were " indepen- 
dence" and " consolidation." The next day Daniel 
Webster began his famous speech in reply to Mr. 



JOHN TYLER. 25 

Hayne, and before it was ended Mr. Tyler and his 
friends felt that the political ground under them had 
been badly shaken. 

There was another shock coming. Year after 
year it had been the custom in Washington to cele- 
brate the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, April 13th, 
by a public dinner. The arrangements for the occa- 
sion, in the spring of 1830, were in the hands of the 
strict Constructionist leaders, and they determined 
to make a political use of it. They prepared the 
regular toasts in such a manner that any of them 
could have been given by Mr. Hayne or Mr. Tyler, 
while some of them could not have been given by 
Mr. Webster without important modifications. The 
President had been invited, and was present, and 
the first volunteer toast was expected from him. 
He gave one full of meaning : " Our Federal 
Union : It must be preserved." Mr. Calhoun gave, 
as the next volunteer toast, " The Union : Next to 
our liberty the most dear ; may we all remember 
that it can only be preserved by respecting the 
rights of the States, and distributing equally the 
benefit and burden of the Union." 

He had fairly returned the blow so evidently 
aimed at the position his political faction was as- 
suming, but he had by no means parried its effect. 
The President had declared, in a condensed form, 
his determination to regard the asserted rights of 
States as altogether secondary to those of the na- 
tion. Federalism itself had never dared to speak so 
plainly, not being General Jackson. The patriotic 
sentiment he had given was printed in all the news- 



26 JOHN TYLER. 

papers, and was everywhere accepted as a keynote 
of his purpose and policy with reference to any 
manner of State resistance to Federal legislation. 
Nine tenths of the population, North and South, 
responded with enthusiastic acquiescence, and the 
General's personal hold upon their confidence was 
vastly strengthened. 

The question of State rights was not yet before 
Congress in any definite form, and the next impor- 
tant act of the President called for the concurrence 
of all strict Constructionists. About a month later 
in the session, a sort of test bill passed both Houses. 
It provided for the construction of a highway for 
the benefit of the Western people, and was known 
as the Maysville and Lexington Road Bill. The 
President vetoed it, and in his message returning it 
said that there should be no public money spent for 
internal improvements prior to the extinguishing of 
the national debt, nor until the Constitution should 
be so amended as to confer due authority upon 
Congress for that kind of legislation. 

Mr. Tyler had fought the Road Bill zealously in 
the Senate, and was now an obstinate member of 
the minority, which was still strong enough to sus- 
tain the veto. Three more bills of the same descrip- 
tion were passed during that session. Of these the 
President returned one, with a veto message, and 
retained two after Congress adjourned, killing them 
quietly by what was called a " pocket veto." 

A breach between General Jackson and Mr. Cal- 
houn had begun in a manner which the latter could 
not understand, and he even attributed the Presi- 



JOHN TYLER, 27 

dent's increasing coolness to some hidden, private 
influence. It was growing wider now, and Mr. 
Tyler and all other State rights men were drifting 
away with their leader. If they agreed with the 
President concerning internal improvements, his 
views upon a protective tariff were at best indefinite, 
and were too definite altogether as to the reserved 



rights of States. Mr. Tyler had been willing to 
agree with General Jackson's preliminary criticisms 
of the Bank of the United States. He could see a 
possibility for improvement in that institution and 
in its management. Very speedily, however, a 
point of departure was reached in the Jacksonian 
exercise of assumed Executive authority, beyond 
which no strict Constructionist could go without a 

sacrifice of principles. . 

As General Jackson pressed his war against the 
bank, therefore, one occasion after another found 
John Tyler voting side by side with Henry Clay 
against measures of the Administration. 'There 
were minor features of the President's course, such 
as the grotesque Eaton affair, by which his first Cabi- 
net was broken up, that a gentleman of Mr. Tyler's 
personal character and social position was likely to 
watch with quiet derision, rather than with any 
stronger feeling. That, for instance, was disgrace- 
ful ; but it had its funny side, and Mr. Tyler loved 
fun. He and many other men, however, looked 
forward with anxiety to the session of Congress, 
which was to begin with the close of the year 1831. 
It was true that the country was prosperous, and 
that the Treasury was overflowing, but the assertion 



2 8 JOHN TYLER. 

was freely made at the South that the prosperity 
did not include that section, and that the Treasury 
surplus was piled up with money unjustly wrung 
from Southern agriculture for the benefit of North- 
ern manufacturers. 

There were yet louder murmurs and angrier 
threats of trouble to come, unless the wrong com- 
plained of should be righted. At the same time it 
was understood that the United States Bank was 
about to try conclusions with Andrew Jackson, and 
proposed to determine the nature and extent of Ex- 
ecutive influence in Congress. 

That this had become seriously impaired was 
manifested when the Senate, after confirming the 
President's new Cabinet, came to a tie vote upon 
Mr. Van Buren's nomination as Minister to England. 
Vice-President Calhoun and his friends, among them 
notably Mr. Tyler, regarded Mr. Van Buren as 
the subtle agent by whose machinations the Presi- 
dent had been turned against them. Mr. Calhoun's 
casting vote as Vice-President was therefore un- 
wisely given against the nomination, and Mr. Van 
Buren was recalled from England just in time to 
supplant his enemy, and become himself Vice- 
President. 

The action of the State rights men and their 
leader was an open declaration of war, and ranged 
them definitely with the opposition, although they 
still asserted their Democratic-Republicanism, and 
claimed an independent position. The session was 
as exciting as had been expected. The protective 
tariff advocates disregarded the threatening attitude 



JOHN TYLER. 29 

of Southern discontent, and their measures had the 
support of many avowed friends of the Adminis- 
tration. 

The representatives of the Bank of the United 
States were able to rally majorities of both Houses 
of Congress in favor of a renewal of the bank char- 
ter, but there their triumph ended. The President 
vetoed their bill in a very able message, and its sup- 
porters failed to pass it over the veto. 

Throughout the stormy debates of the session, 
Mr. Tyler added to the reputation he had won, and 
if his course was defiantly hostile to the policy of 
the Administration, it by no means injured his re- 
lations to the main body of his party in his own 
State. It was shortly to be discovered that he well 
understood the existing sentiment of his constitu- 
ents, and what importance, more or less, they as- 
cribed to the bank question, as compared with those 
of State rights and the tariff. 

The Jackson Democratic National Convention 
met at Baltimore, on May 21st, 1832, to give the 
General a formal nomination for a second term as 
President. There was really little doubt concerning 
his election, although the friends of the bank confi- 
dently prophesied his defeat. In spite of all that 
could be done by the opponents of Mr. Van Buren, 
the convention named him as its candidate for 
Vice-President. 

Only a fragment of the rebellion within the old 
party lines was as yet prepared to take independent 
action. South Carolina voted on election day for 
candidates of her own selection, John Floyd, of Vir- 



3© JOHN TYLER. 

ginia, and Henry Lee, of Massachusetts. The Ver- 
mont opposition, made up of all sorts, gave the 
voice of that State to William Wirt, of Maryland, 
and Amos EUmaker, of Pennsylvania. 

The first votes of what was afterward the Whig 
Party, forty-nine in number, from six States, were 
given to Clay and Sargent. The great mass of the 
Democratic Party, including most of its strict Con- 
structionists, adhered to the regular party nomina- 
tions, and gave General Jackson two hundred and 
nineteen electoral votes. Mr. Van Buren received 
a hundred and eighty-nine, and was elected. The 
second term of the Jackson Administration, there- 
fore, began with an emphatic declaration that the 
people were with the President. 

The drift of the several political elements could 
be understood a year or so later, but not so easily 
in 1832. Up to the re-election of General Jackson, 
Mr. Tyler had so guided his course in all votes and 
speeches, that he could and did declare himself more 
soundly a Jeffersonian Republican, more entitled to 
be called a Democrat, than was the President 
himself. 

The completeness of General Jackson's victory at 
the November polls had been a surprise to the sup- 
porters of the Bank of the United States, but it did 
not discourage them entirely, nor prevent them from 
gathering all their resources for a new struggle in 
Congress. They were now, moreover, sure of an in- 
creased support from the strict Constructionists, for 
the strength of that faction was visibly increasing, and 
it was taking a position which threatened war upon 



JOHN TYLER. 31 

every feature and part of the Jackson Administra- 
tion. 

Before long the bank advocates counted Mr. Tyler 
as altogether one of thennselves, but his votes and 
speeches upon the various phases of that question 
were as yet of minor consequence to himself and to 
the nation. The battle for the charter, with its de- 
feats or victories, was in the hands of other men, 
and all gains or losses were also theirs. 

It was in the debates upon the tariff that the Vir- 
ginia Senator at this time attained a prominence not 
before assigned to him. In the course of the ses- 
sion of 1832, Henry Clay made one of his greatest 
speeches, continuing through three consecutive days 
to set before the Senate, with all the power of his 
eloquence, the blessings which the nation was receiv- 
ing and was yet to obtain from a system which pro- 
tected its growing industries from the fatal rivalries 
of European production. 

No other man responded to Mr. Clay with greater 
force or effect than did John Tyler. There was 
something more than mere logic and oratory behind 
his energetic declarations, for he uttered the voice 
of a sorely discontented constituency in half a dozen 
important States. Making no mention of any de- 
fect in the Southern social system, of slave labor, of 
overgrown landed estates, of the paucity of educa- 
tional facilities, of neglected resources, he ascribed 
all Southern poverty and backwardness to the bane- 
ful operation of the protective tariff system. He 
drew contrasting pictures as vivid as those in which 
Mr. Clay had painted Northern prosperity, and the 



32 JOHN TYLER. 

force of the great orator's great effort was mani- 
festly counteracted. 

There was, indeed, a vast contrast between the 
languishing condition of the South and the fever- 
ishly rushing activities of the swiftly expanding 
North. The tariff was only in part responsible for 
the results in either section, but the Southern peo- 
ple believed that it was the root of all their evils, 
and they grew more sore and troubled daily. Their 
bitter sense of oppression increased, until, in that 
same Autumn, 1832, a convention called by the 
State Legislature of South Carolina met at Colum- 
bia, and adopted what is known in American history 
as .the Nullification Ordinance. By this it was in 
substance declared as the voice of the State : 

I. That the tariff law of 1828 and the amendment 
to the same of 1832 are "null, void, and no law, 
nor binding upon this State, its officers, or citizens." 

II. That no duties provided for by that law or its 
amendment shall be paid or be permitted to be paid 
in the State of South Carolina after February ist, 

1833. 

III. That in no case involving the validity of an 
act of the State Legislature, nullifying the tariff 
law, shall an appeal to the Supreme Court of the 
United States be permitted. No copy of proceed- 
ings shall be taken for such an appeal. Any attempt 
to make such an appeal " may be dealt with as for 
a contempt of the court," from which the appeal is 
taken. 

IV. That every civil and military office-holder in 
the State, and every person hereafter assuming 



JOHN TYLER. 

Office, and every juror, shall take an oath to obey 
th,s ordmance, and all acts of the Legislature in 
■ pursuance thereof. 

V. In case the Government of the United States 
hall attempt to enforce the existing tariff laws by 
ts army and navy, by closing ports or preventing 
the free coming and going of vessels, or in any way 
tTZT\C' 'l'"'''"^ the foreign commerce o^ 
the State, then South Carolina will consider herself 
no longer a State of the Union : " The peooTe o 
th.s State will thenceforth hold themselve?aro'rve1 

the.r political connection with the people of the 
other States, and will forthwith proceed to organise 
a separate government, and do all other acfs and 
things^which sovereign and independent States J, 

The extreme State rights men, in all the States 
North as well as South, believed that the people of 

act- n i^^h t"' ''" "" ^''^^'^^^ "»"'" '° '-^' 'ha 
act on in that manner. John Tyler did not believe 

ttat they were acting wisely or with sufficient cause 

nrfunhe" '^'^"' °' "^ ^"'"■''^^''■•°" O^'i'-ncewen; 

President Jackson had already defined his own 

position sufficiently, for he had r'^undly thr tenid 

e°sis:a"nc:To''"f ",?° ""^'^' ^^ ^-^'^' '" ^-^ 
resistance to national forces. 

Excitement ran high in South Carolina. Warlike 
preparations were made. Medals were struck, with 

of tl'soT '■ 7°"? ^- ^^"'°""' ^'-' P-^ident 
of the Southern Confederacy." The aspect of 



34 JOHN TYLER. 

affairs would have been bad, indeed, if the storm 
area had not been so narrow. NulHfication did not 
spread. The hour had not come. Other Southern 
States agreed with John Tyler that the movement 
was excessive and premature. Even Mr. Calhoun 
thought so, and used his influence on behalf of mod- 
eration. The rest of the country arose with enthu- 
siasm to approve of General Jackson's prompt and 
vigorous policy of repression. General Scott was 
ordered to Charleston. Troops were made ready. 
Ships of war prepared to put to sea. Proclamations 
were issued declaring the President's purpose. 
Senator Hayne was chosen Governor of South Caro- 
lina, and John C. Calhoun was elected United States 
Senator in his place, resigning the Vice-President's 
chair that he might have a voice in the debates that 
were to come. He did not look forward to seces- 
sion or rebellion, for when he reached Washington 
he took the oath to support the Constitution of the 
United States. He did so in time to listen to the 
reading of the President's Message to Congress, 
January i6th, 1833, detailing the position of affairs, 
and asking additional power to deal with armed 
Nullification. He took the floor at once, and made 
an able speech in vindication of his constituents, yet 
declared his devotion to the Union if maintained in 
accordance with his views of the original compact. 

A bill was soon reported giving the President the 
powers he asked for, and again Mr. Tyler distin- 
guished himself by the ability with which he op- 
posed the obnoxious measure. It was known pop- 
ularly as the Force Bill, and there were many good 



JOHN TYLER. 35 

Unionists all over the land who regarded it as 
needless. February 1st, " Nullification day," came 
and went without any open breach of law by 
the people of South Carolina. The President had 
recommended, and Congress devised and adopted, 
important tariff measures, looking toward com- 
promise, and promising relief from the oppressions 
complained of. These measures were so nearly a 
surrender of all that the Protectionists had pre- 
viously contended for, that secession had really noth- 
ing left to fight about. They were passed by large 
majorities, and the anti-tariff and State rights men 
had reason to claim a substantial victory. Late in 
the session the Force Bill came to a vote, at an 
hour when some men who might have opposed it to 
the last were absent, while some others were so un- 
willing to be called Nullifiers that they declared it 
a piece of perfunctory legislation not worth fight- 
ing. In the House it received a heavy majority. 
In the Senate only one man voted against it, and 
that man was John Tyler. There can be no ques- 
tion but what he courageously so voted in accord- 
ance with fixed convictions and clearly settled views 
of the authority and duty of the Federal Govern- 
ment under the Constitution. 

He had not misunderstood the will of the people 
of Virginia. They were opposed to Nullification, 
to disunion, to civil war, but they were with John 
Tyler against the tariff and against the Force Bill, 
and in that very month of February the Virginia 
Legislature elected him to a second term in the 
Senate of the United States. 



CHAPTER III. 

Tyler Against Jackson — Acting zvith Whig Leaders — 
The Expunging Resolntio7is — Resigning his Seat in 
the Seriate — Elected Vice-President — Death of Gen- 
eral Harrisojt — Tyler s Position as President of the 
United States. 

Mr. Tyler's second term in the Senate of the 
United States began in December, 1S33. He spent 
a long summer and autumn vacation in Virginia, at- 
tending to his law cases and meeting his neighbors, 
everywhere receiving marked recognition of the 
new fame he had won, but discovering also that 
with reference to the United States Bank the people 
of the Old Dominion were somewhat disposed to 
side with General Jackson. 

The discovery did not make any change in the 
views or conduct of John Tyler. He hated General 
Jackson. He hated Martin Van Buren somewhat 
more bitterly. He was ready to defend almost any- 
thing, except a public improvement or a protective 
tariff, which those two men might propose to assail. 
He also firmly believed that General Jackson, in his 
war against the bank, was going far beyond any 
functions which the States, assenting to the Union, 
had proposed to put into the hands of the National 
Executive. He therefore returned to Washington, 
and resumed his seat in the Senate as an opponent 



JOHN TYLER. 37 

of the Administration, yet claiming to be still a 
member of the Democratic Party. 

President Jackson was everyday doing something 
which made such a position more and more uncom- 
fortable, and more difficult to maintain. 

At the same time, the new Whig Party, under the 
leadership of Clay and Harrison and other able 
men, was rapidly gaining strength, and seemed likely, 
in time, to absorb the New England anti-Jackson 
element, headed by Daniel Webster, the anti- 
Masonic faction, which had some strength in several 
States, and several other odds and ends of political 
discontent. 

The President's war upon the bank had gone on 
without intermission during the Congressional vaca- 
tion. In September he had directed the Secretary 
of the Treasury, Mr. Duane, to begin a process of 
transfer of Government funds from the Bank of the 
United States to several banks existing under State 
laws, and, upon Mr. Duane's refusal to comply, had 
dismissed him from office. His successor, Roger B. 
Taney, removed the deposits, the bank began to 
curtail its discounts, the business .of important com- 
mercial classes was thrown into confusion, and a 
general panic was said to be at hand. 

By the removal of the deposits, by the dismissal 
of Mr. Duane, by the veto of a bill for distributing 
among the States the proceeds of sales of the public 
lands, and in other ways, the President was array- 
ing against himself a majority of both Houses of 
Congress, including some men who had voted for 
his re-election. His first list of nominations for 



3S JOHN TYLER. 

Government directors of the Bank of the United 
States was twice rejected by the Senate. Any direct 
attack upon him waited until December 26th, 1833, 
and then Mr. Clay brought forward a series of reso- 
lutions censuring the President for action taken be- 
fore and after Congress assembled. One of these 
resolutions condensed the meaning of all, and was as 
follows : 

^^ Resolved, That the President, in the late executive proceedings 
in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself 
authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, 
but in derogation of both." 

Mr. Clay advocated his resolutions eloquently, 
and was supported by Mr. Webster, but neither of 
them equalled the vituperative force with which 
John C. Calhoun assailed the course of the Presi- 
dent. Mr. Tyler vigorously sustained the resolu- 
tions, but the Whig leader, the Massachusetts 
statesman, and the champion of Nullification had left 
him comparatively little to say. 

Andrew Jackson had able defenders, and the de- 
bates consumed the time of the Senate during three 
months, but the resolutions of censure were finally 
adopted by a vote of twenty-six to twenty. Sen- 
ator Thomas H. Benton at once gave notice of a 
resolution to expunge the record of the censure 
from the journal of the Senate, and the expung- 
ing question, both as to the propriety and legality 
of such an act, became a constantly-recurring 
feature of the stormy political contest which fol- 
lowed. 



JOHN TYLER. 39 

The remainder of 1834, the year 1835 and the 
year 1836, were full of political and financial dis- 
turbances and excitements, while the President 
fought steadily on, through what seemed a series 
of defeats, to his final triumph over the bank and 
its supporters. All the while Mr. Tyler was form- 
ing strong personal friendships with the Whig states- 
men, whose associate and ally he had in this manner 
become, and found himself drawing away farther 
and farther from both the old and the new leaders 
of the Democratic Party. He made a very consist- 
ent record, however, to the end of his career in the 
Senate. An unexpected termination was provided 
for him just before the close of General Jackson's 
Administration. The President was sensitively 
anxious that Colonel Benton's expunging resolution 
should pass, that he might retire to private life 
without, as he considered it, a blot upon his fame 
as a statesman. There was an all but sentimental 
feeling in his favor throughout the country, and a 
sufficient number of Senators had yielded to it to 
secure a majority for expunging. Mr. Tyler had 
enemies in the Virginia Legislature, and they well 
knew that he was not one of the men who had 
yielded. They therefore procured the passage of a 
resolution instructing him to vote for the removal 
of the Jackson censure from the Senate journal. 
The plot appeared to meet with entire success. 
When John Tyler was ordered by his own State to 
reverse his repeatedly declared verdict upon what 
he deemed a breach of constitutional law, there was 
but one course open to him. He could not obey. 



40 JOHN TYLER. 

and he could not disobey, and he therefore resigned 
his seat in the Senate. That body contained one 
anti-Jackson, anti-Van Buren man the less, but Mr. 
Tyler had not yet formally declared a dissolution of 
the tie which had bound him to the Democratic 
Party. Neither had he avowed any purpose of act- 
ing, in any event, with the Whigs. But the most 
important transactions of the previous two years 
had not all taken place in Congress. 

The extreme school of Abolitionists had increased 
their activities in various ways, until, in 1835, a fa- 
natically-bitter persecution had been aroused against 
them. The South, with one voice, declared them 
incendiary public enemies. They were mobbed in a 
number of places at the North. The Postmaster- 
General prohibited mail facilities for their publica- 
tions. They were few in number, and formed no 
party organization, but they exercised a subtle in- 
fluence which expressed itself in the fact that can- 
didates for public ofifices were beginning to be in- 
quired of more carefully as to their views, and as to 
any legislative votes which they had cast with refer- 
ence to the Missouri Compromise, or any other 
phase of the slavery question. 

The bone of future political contention was pre- 
paring in yet another form, and that large majority 
in the Northern States which did not ask for Aboli- 
tion but was opposed to the extension of slavery 
was jealously watching the tide of emigration which 
was setting toward Texas. There was hardly any 
attempt to disguise the fact that eventual annexa- 
tion to the United States was a settled part of the 



JOHN TYLER. 41 

purpose of this movement, and John Tyler was one 
of its friends from the beginning. 

To him, indeed, the year 1835 brought a political 
event which materially changed his relations to his 
party for a time, and then opened for him a new 
and unlooked-for career. 

It had been the well-understood will and plan of 
General Jackson that he should be succeeded in 
office by his capable and faithful lieutenant, Martin 
Van Buren, and there were signs, here and there, 
that the Democratic Party itself did not fully share 
in the purposes of its chief. A National Conven- 
tion was therefore called a full year in advance, and 
it met at Baltimore, May 20th, 1835, for the ex- 
press purpose of giving Mr. Van Buren a unanimous 
nomination. It did so, with six hundred votes 
and then, much less unanimously, named Richard 
M Johnson for the Vice-Presidency. 

There were especial reasons why Mr. Tyler dis- 
approved of even Colonel Johnson, but these were 
of minor importance compared with his rooted an- 
tipathy to Martin Van Buren. That gentleman 
was an embodiment of the Jackson policy, with the 
addition of suspected anti-slavery views, and also 
of something like personal enmity to John Tyler 
more than suspected. 

The Whig Party had gained a fair degree of 
strength, but some of the elements opposed to Mr. 
Van Buren were not Whig. The Nullifiers of South 
Carolina were not so by any means, and in 1836 they 
cast the electoral vote of that State for Willie P. 
Mangum. The anti-Jackson party of Massachusetts 



42 JOHN TYLER. 

was not yet Whig, and it cast tlie votes of that State 
for Daniel Webster. The corresponding elements 
in Tennessee and Georgia gave the votes of those 
States to Hugh L. White. The regular Whig can- 
didates were William Henry Harrison and Francis 
Granger, who received seventy-three votes from 
seven States. The reason why Richard M. John- 
son failed of an election as Vice-President, while 
Mr. Van Buren by one hundred and seventy votes 
was chosen President, was that the electors of Mary- 
land, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, all 
nominally Democratic, declared in favor of John 
Tyler. 

Colonel Johnson received his election at the hands 
of the Democratic majority in the Senate, when 
that body assembled, while the Whig Party took 
notice from the election returns that there was an 
important element at the South which might, per- 
haps, be made to vote the Whig ticket, if the co- 
operation of Mr. Tyler could be obtained. What 
was not so carefully noted, however, was the im- 
portant fact that the Tyler faction, opposed to 
Van Buren and Johnson, was in hardly any point 
of political principles or doctrine really Whig, 
and was as sure as water itself to find its proper 
level. 

The great political idea presented by the Whig 
leaders, as they now proceeded to rally and organize 
their forces for the next campaign, was a union of all 
the factions for the purpose of breaking the power 
bequeathed by General Jackson to Mr. Van Buren. 
They were ready to compromise many matters in 



JOHN TYLER. 43 

order to attain that end, and they accomplished 
their purposes remarkably well. "~ - I 

Mr. Tyler had for a long time followed the leader- / 
ship of Henry Clay in the great debates where they ,' 
had been in enthusiastic accord. He willingly I 
joined the proposed combination, and did vigorous 
work for the consolidation of all the possible Whig 
strength in the State of Virginia. He went to the 
State Legislature in 1838 elected as a Whig by his 
own district, which had never before been repre- 
sented by anything but a sound Jeffersonian Demo- 
crat. His constituents had undergone no real 
change, nor had he. They were State rights 
Democrats, and so was Mr. Tyler the same as 
ever. 

There was a vast amount of strictly party work 
done on both sides during the first three years of 
Mr. Van Buren's Administration. He still held 
firmly in his own hands, through an army of office- 
holding, working politicians, the obedient machinery 
of his own party organization. More than any 
other man he had made it what it was, and no other 
Democrat could take it from him, and by means of 
it he made sure of a second nomination, in spite of 
the lukewarmness of many of his most distinguished 
associates. On the other hand, the several factions 
which had opposed him vainly in 1836 seemed 
welded into one, calling itself the Whig Party. 

John Tyler was a man capable of forming strong 
personal attachments, as well as of adhering obsti- 
nately to political ideas, and when, in 1839, he came 
to the Whig National Convention as a delegate from 



44 JOHN TYLER. 

Virginia, he appeared as the zealous advocate of the 
nomination of Henry Clay for President, 

The friends of Mr. Webster were not prepared to 
yield to his great rival, and there were others who 
dreaded Mr. Clay's imperious will. The Kentucky 
statesman had made enemies as well as friends dur- 
ing his long leadership in the House, and afterward 
in the Senate. The anti-Masonic faction had al- 
ready declared its preference for General Harrison, 
and he had a great personal influence in the West- 
ern States. He had already been the candidate of 
the party in 1836 in the face of sure defeat, and it 
was said that he had a fair title to a new trial. The 
voice of the convention was finally given unani- 
mously for Harrison as its candidate for President, 
but there seemed to be especial difficulty in naming 
a Vice-President. Prominent men, to whom the 
nomination was first offered, declined it. When the 
name of John Tyler was mentioned he was asserted 
to be a personal representative of the defeated 
Henry Clay interest as well as of an unknown 
Southern vote, which could be obtained in no other 
way. With very little dissent, the nomination of 
Mr. Tyler was declared, and the convention ad- 
journed. Up to that time no President had died 
in office, General Harrison was supposed to be in 
vigorous health, and most men remembered that 
John Adams had described the Vice-Presidency as 
" a respectable situation" and very little more. 

The great " Log-Cabin Campaign" of 1840 fol- 
lowed, and, at the end of it, the Whig Party won a 
remarkable triumph, for its narrow majorities elected 



JOHN TYLER. 45 

Harrison and Tyler by two hundred and thirty-four 
electoral votes against sixty. 

Mr. Tyler became Vice-President by the votes of 
the Whig Party, without at all becoming what 
either Clay or Harrison could have called a Whig — 
that is, if they had known that he had not aban- 
doned one hair of the strict Constructionist, State 
rights opinions in which he had been educated, and 
which he had so often defined by his speeches and 
votes in Congress. 

He went to Washington in March, 1841, to take 
the oath of office ; but, shortly after the inaugura- 
tion, he departed to his home at Williamsburg, Vir- 
ginia. He seemed, indeed, to have gained another 
of the extraordinary promotions which had marked 
his political career. He had been most respectably 
provided for for four years to come, and he did not 
appear to be needed in Washington. He knew very 
well that a mere Vice-President, hardly a Whig at 
all, could have little influence over an administra- 
tion which began its work with General Harrison in 
the White House, Daniel Webster, Secretary of 
State, and Henry Clay holding a sort of dictator- 
ship over the Whig majority in Congress. Perhaps 
the true position and tendencies of a part of that 
majority were better understood by Mr. Tyler than 
by Mr. Clay. 

The Vice-President was to spend only a few short 
weeks at his quiet farm house home at Williams- 
burg. Early in the morning of April 5th, 1841, a 
swift messenger dismounted at his gate, and brought 
to him the following startling communication : 



46 JOHN TYLER. 

"Washington, April 4, 1S41. 

" To John Tyler, Vice-President of the United States: 

"Sir : It becomes our painful duty to inform you that William 
Henry Harrison, late President of the United States, has departed 
this life. 

" This distressing event took place this day, at the President's 
mansion in this city, at thirty minutes before one in the morning. 

"We lose no time in despatching the chief clerk in the State 
Department as a special messenger to bear you these melancholy 
tidings. 

" We have the honor to be, with highest regard, 

" Your obedient servants." 

The signatures were those of Daniel Webster and 
the other members of the Cabinet, with the excep- 
tion of the Secretary of the Navy, absent in Georgia. 
The brief despatch contained tremendous informa- 
tion, and Mr. Tyler must have been deeply stirred 
by so sudden, so utterly unlooked-for a change in 
his position. One thing that the Cabinet did not 
tell him, however, was that they had already held a 
meeting, and had passed a formal vote of want of 
confidence in John Tyler as President. In the ab- 
sence of any historical precedent, they had decided, 
by vote, to impress upon him their joint opinion 
that he had not become fully the President by the 
death of General Harrison. When he reached 
Washington on the 6th, they tried to do so, and ad- 
vised him to take a new oath to administer the 
duties of the Executive as acting President. He 
believed his inaugural oath sufficient, but consented 
to take another, disregarding their further sugges- 
tions, and calling himself President, without quali- 
fying the title or diminishing the assumption of 



JOHN TYLER. 47 

authority. His decision has since then been fully 
accepted as sound constitutional law, and his ex- 
ample has been followed in the cases of Fillmore, 
Johnson, and Arthur. 

The Harrison Cabinet was not disturbed in ofifice 
by the new Chief Magistrate of the 'nation, but no 
amount of dignified courtes}'- on their part could 
conceal from a politician of Mr. Tyler's acuteness 
and experience the real meaning of their proposed 
restriction of his title and authority. He knew that 
if Henry Clay, for instance, had been in his place, 
no such proposition would have been made by a 
Whig Cabinet. 

They were by no means alone in the alarmed view 
which they took of the changed political situation. 
Prominent Whigs everywhere gave utterance to 
forebodings. For instance, Mr. Samuel L. South- 
ard, of New York, who had himself declined the 
Whig nomination for Vice-President, afterward 
given to Mr. Tyler, declared upon hearing of Gen- 
eral Harrison's death : 

"We have lost the fruits of ten years of labor. What incom- 
prehensible fatuity in the convention to nominate John Tyler for 
Vice-President ! I know him thoroughly. He is a well-meaning 
man of fair capacity and patriotic intentions, but full of the nar- 
rowest Virginia abstractions, and has no sympathy with the prin- 
ciples or purposes of the men who elected him to office. We shall 
see the Whig Party distracted and overthrown, and the Democrats 
return to power at the end of two years, as the inevitable conse- 
quence of Harrison's death." 

Mr. Tyler, therefore, entered upon his ofificial 
duties under exceedingly disadvantageous circum- 



48 JOHN TYLER. 

stances. His Cabinet was not of his own selection, 
and was composed of men, not one of whom would 
have selected him for President. The party which 
had placed him in power was well aware that he did 
not really belong to it, while the leading Democratic 
prints were loading him with derision and vitupera- 
tion. 

That he should soon find himself at variance with 
the group of statesmen around him was inevitable, 
but the first open quarrel came earlier than even Mr, 
Southard seems to have anticipated. 

The new Democratic tariff, the compromise tariff 
secured by the Nullificationists in 1833, had not 
worked well for the Treasury, whatever it was sup- 
posed to have done for the good of South Carolina. 
One of the first public acts of President Harrison 
had, in consequence, been a summons to the newly- 
elected Congress to assemble on May 31st, and pro- 
vide means for meeting Government expenses and 
the interest upon the public debt. It was certain 
that there would be a strong Whig majority in both 
House and Senate, and the Harrison Cabinet pre- 
pared its work accordingly, very much as if Mr. 
Tyler were only an acting President, intrusted 
jointly with themselves as political executors of the 
policy and measures left behind him by the dead 
President. Mr. Tyler, on the other hand, consid- 
ered himself an heir of full age, who had received 
his inheritance, and was no longer in need of either 
executors or guardians. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Separation of Mr. Tyler from the Whig Party — 
Vetoes of Party Measures — CJianges in the Cabinet 
— Calhoun Secretary of State — Texan Annexation 
— Polk Elected — Retire^nent of Mr. Tyler — The 
Peace Convention — The End. 

Mr. Clay had prepared a National Bank Bill in 
accord with the views of Mr. Thomas Ewing, Secre- 
tary of the Treasury — that is, with the approval of 
the Harrison Cabinet, but, when Congress passed 
it, August 6th, 1841, and sent it to the President, 
it failed to meet with his approval. He vetoed it, 
and Congress framed and passed another, trying to 
conform to his expressed views. He vetoed that 
bill on September loth, and the breach between 
him and the Whig Party was rendered almost irrep- 
arable by the imperious manner in which Henry 
Clay called his old friend to a personal account for 
what he roundly described as presumption and re- 
bellion. 

The manner in which the leaders of both parties, 
and the people generally, discovered, from step to 
step, that Mr. Tyler's ideas were carrying him for- 
ward upon a path of his own, belongs to the politi- 
cal history of the day. The Harrison Cabinet, find- 
ing themselves practically out of place, resigned 
their places, and Democrats were appointed instead. 



50 JOIfX TYLER. 

Daniel Webster alone remained, avowedly in order 
that he might finish the pending treaty with Great 
Britain. As soon as he and Lord Ashburton had 
settled the Northeastern boundary question in May, 
1843, ^^^ ^^^^ resigned. 

Mr. Webster's views with reference to several 
important questions had not been widely at v-ari- 
ance with those of Mr. Tyler, and their personal 
relations wore not at first disturbed. With reference 
to one line of policy which was soon to become of 
foremost consideration Mr. Tyler wrote to Mr. 
Webster in October, 1841 : " I gave you a hint as 
to the possibility of acquiring Texas by treat}^ could 
the North be reconciled to it. Could anything 
throw so bright a lustre around us ? Slavery — I know 
that is the objection, and it would be well founded, 
if it did not already exist among us." 

It had not at that date become impossible for 
even a Whig statesman to favor the idea of Texan 
annexation. Long debates in Congress were re- 
quired, and full discussions by the press, before lead- 
ers or parties or voters were prepared to take defi- 
nite positions relating to territorial extension. 

A full Democratic Cabinet was obtained in July, 
1843, ^y the appointment of Mr. Upshur in Mr. 
Webster's place. It was made more definitely 
State rights, strict Constructionist, and pro-slavery, 
a little later, for, in February, 1S44, Mr. L^pshur was 
killed by the bursting of a cannon, and John C. 
Calhoun became Secretary of State. 

Mr. Tyler's veto of the Bank Bill seemed incon- 
sistent with his previous course, and has never been 



JOHN TYLER. 51 

satisfactorily explained, but, before long, it took its 
place as a fit beginning of a persistent line of action, 
hostile to Whig ascendency. It is as a whole, 
rather than in piecemeal, that the course he fol- 
lowed can be understood as that of an able man with 
a distinct purpose in view. 

There was a great political fact which the party 
politicians of 1840 had failed to take into full ac- 
count. The old issues, the tariff, the United States 
Bank, public improvements and the like, no longer 
occupied the foremost place in the public mind, or 
in real importance to the country. Two very new 
parties were about to face each other upon a divid- 
ing line, which had long been in course of prepara- 
tion for them. Mr. Tyler had been born and bred 
upon the Southern side of that line. Calhoun and 
Tyler, and other men who advocated slavery as a 
permanent feature of the social system of the South, 
were convinced that it could not long be defended 
behind its existing geographical boundaries. Its 
political strength must be kept upon an equality 
with that of its adversary in the Northern States, 
and that could be accomplished only by an increase 
of its domains. They therefore advocated terri- 
torial extension, beginning with Texas, but speak- 
ing freely of the regions beyond it, and of the West 
Indian islands. Time had been when even John 
Quincy Adams had declared himself in favor of ex- 
tending the United States boundaries until they 
were equivalent to those of the continent of North 
America. He was now in Congress, standing all 
alone as a representative anti-slavery man, and no 



52 JOHN TYLER. 

longer an annexationist. He had changed, and so, 
in an opposite direction, had others, and a clear 
majority of the people of the United States were at 
heart in favor of extension, regarding the slavery- 
question as secondary. This majority, North and 
South, was largely made up of the old Jackson 
Democracy, but it also contained many men who 
had never voted for Jackson. There was, more- 
over, a strong Democratic element mildly opposed 
to the extension of slavery, but not at all opposed 
to the acquisition of new territory. On the other 
hand, anti-annexationist Whig politicians at the 
South were often compelled to take the ground that 
the acquisition of more land meant more free States, 
and an increased peril to Southern domestic insti- 
tutions. These were more nearly correct than any 
of the other prophets or schemers. 

Mr. Adams, and other eloquent men in Congress, 
whenever the Texas question came up in debate, 
had plainly pointed out during Jackson's Adminis- 
tration, and afterward during that of Van Buren, 
that annexation meant war with Mexico. As time 
went on that warning seemed to lose some of its 
reasonable force. Texan independence seemed to 
be pretty firmly established, while Mexico, however 
she might threaten, was rent and torn by internal 
disorders which promised to prevent any consider- 
able effort for the recovery of her lost Texan terri- 
tory. It was easy at the last to persuade Northern 
extensionists, who hated war, that any considerable 
war was impossible, not many of them seeing that 
the annexationists of the extreme Southern type 



JOHN TYLER. ^l 

desired the war itself as a means for obtaining 
much more than Texas. 

The annexation movement suffered somewhat in 
1 841 by the wretched failure of a plan for the addi- 
tion of New Mexico to the area to be acquired. 
What was called the Santa Fe expedition marched 
from Texas only to be surrendered to the Mexican 
authorities. 

In April, 1842, when the diplomatic appropria- 
tions were under consideration in Congress, a spir- 
ited debate arose upon a motion to strike out the 
provision for a Minister to Mexico. Such a Gov- 
ernment official, it was declared, would be only an 
agent of John Tyler and his friends for the purpose 
of bringing on a Mexican war. The appropriation 
was made, and, at the same time, the issue between 
the two parties was more distinctly drawn. What 
was of much personal importance to Mr. Tyler, 
however, was the bitter vehemence with which his 
old Whig associates, whether in Congress or speak- 
ing through the press, accused him of having de- 
serted them for ambitious purposes, and of having 
become not the leader but the purchased tool of the 
Texas annexationists. He was told that stronger 
men than he would reap the political rewards of the 
course that he was pursuing, and that upon his head 
would be the guilt of all the blood which might be 
shed. 

His assailants were blindly unjust, for Mr. Tyler 
had never at any time been an anti-slavery man, nor 
had he ever concealed his approval of the annexa- 
tion of Texas. Even when, in August, 1842, he 



54 JOHN TYLER. 

vetoed the Whig Tariff Bill, and brought upon him- 
self unmeasured condemnation, the ground he took 
was very much the same v/hich he had defined in 
his speeches in the Senate years before. He was 
ambitious ; he desired a re-election, and knew that 
he could not hope for it from the Whig Party, but 
it was not merely personal ambition which sepa- 
rated him from that political organization. The 
course it was bound to pursue with reference to ter- 
ritorial extension, to the rights of the South, and of 
slave owners in any territory which might be ac- 
quired, was one in which he could not possibly have 
gone with them. His apparent desertion of the 
Whig Party was not caused by an ambition which 
induced him to change his political principles, but 
by the rooted fact that he had undergone no change 
whatever when he went into the general combina- 
tion against Van Buren, and that now his old doc- 
trines and his new aspirations worked in very fair 
harmony. 

Abuse was heaped upon him unstintedly. Even 
his kindness of heart had made enemies for him at 
the outset. Immediately upon assuming the Presi- 
dency he began to check the dismissals and remov- 
als, especially of clerks in the public departments at 
Washington. Many of these were his personal ac- 
quaintances, v/ere men with families depending for 
support upon their salaries, debarred from other 
employments, perhaps, by having grown gray in 
office. There was no good reason for their re- 
moval, and he said to a member of the Cabinet : " I 
cannot bear to have their wives and children come 



JOHN TYLER. 55 

to nie with accounts of their sufferings when I can 
help it." 

There were many eager office-seekers, and the 
entire throng of the disappointed charged their fail- 
ures upon what they called the treachery of John 
Tyler. 

In his official intercourse with all men, high or 
low, he was all that could be asked ; approachable, 
courteous, always willing to do a kindly action, or 
to speak a kindly word. In his private morals there 
was no reproach, and there was much to admire in 
the quiet home life of the family at the White 
House. There was a shadow there, also, for his 
wife, Mrs. Letitia Christian Tyler, was surely fading 
away. She died in September, 1842, leaving be- 
hind her a family of sons and daughters, her oldest 
daughter-in-law, Mrs. Robert Tyler, taking her place 
as mistress of the Executive Mansion. 

The President's personal appearance at this time 
is described as that of a middle-aged gentleman of 
excellent health, refined manners, and the quick, 
alert step of a man exceedingly busy. He was 
above the middle height, somewhat slender, clean 
shaven, with light hair. His light blue eyes were 
penetrating, and had a humorous twinkle which 
aided the notable faculty he possessed for telling a 
good story, and for making keen conversational hits. 

In spite of Mexican protests and Whig opposition, 
the annexation project moved steadily onward, until, 
in 1844, it was brought before the whole people for 
their decision. 

The Democratic Party contained a minority in 



56 JOHN TYLER. 

favor of annexation and a war with Mexico. Its 
majority expected annexation without much of a 
war. Together, the two wings were now slightly a 
minority of the popular vote, but they carried the 
election because they were united upon one can- 
didate. They came near to not being so, for a 
number of Mr. Tyler's friends got together and 
gave him an independent nomination for President. 
The movement produced no change in the plans 
of the Democratic Party, and was shortly aban- 
doned, for the obvious reason that it would have in- 
sured the defeat of annexation. Mr. Tyler was an 
impossible candidate, as much so as John C. Cal- 
houn, since neither of them could have carried one 
State north of the Ohio River. A more prudent 
choice named James K. Polk, of Tennessee, for 
President, with George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, 
for Vice-President. The Whig Party named Henry 
Clay, of Kentucky, and Theodore FreHnghuysen, of 
New Jersey, and entered upon a vigorous campaign. 
They rightly assumed, in all prints and speeches, 
that annexation meant war, and they said at the 
North that it was also a movement on behalf of 
slavery extension. 

The moderate anti-slavery men were with them, 
but the extreme Abolitionists were not, and nomi- 
nated James G. Birney for President, with Thomas 
Morris for Vice-President. Clay and Birney together 
had twenty-three thousand four hundred and sev- 
enty-one votes more than Polk, but the Aboli- 
tion votes were so distributed as to lose impor- 
tant electoral tickets for the Whig candidate, and 



JOHN TYLER. 57 

Mr. Clay carried but eleven States, North and 
South, with one hundred and five electors, while 
Mr. Polk had fifteen States, with one hundred and 
seventy electors. Mr. Tyler could say that his 
policy had been sustained, even if his personal am- 
bition had been thwarted, and when Congress came 
together in December, 1844, the nature and spirit of 
that policy were unfolded more fully than ever 
before. 

Early in the Spring of 1844 a treaty with Texas 
for the annexation of an indefinite piece of land 
called by that name, had been laid before the Sen- 
ate by Mr. Tyler, and had been ignominiously re- 
jected, only fifteen Senators voting for it. There 
had been a great change since then, and a number 
of new men had entered the Senate. To the 
strongly annexationist body, resulting from the 
nomination of James G. Birney, the President sub- 
mitted a remarkable despatch of Secretary of State 
John C. Calhoun, to W. R. King, United States 
Minister to France. In this paper the annexation 
of Texas was defended as a means of upholding 
slavery in Texas, primarily, and " ultimately in the 
United States, and throughout the whole of this 
continent." Such a policy, it was urged, deserved 
the favor of slave-holding France, as counterbalanc- 
ing the probable effect of the Abolition policy of 
England — a power which was widely believed to 
have covetous designs of its own with reference to 
Texas. 

The country was startled by the boldness of the 
propositions made by Mr. Calhoun through Mr. 



58 JOHN TYLER. 

Tyler, but there was no wavering in the ranks of 
the majority in Congress. A joint resolution pro- 
viding for annexation was reported on December 
17th, and was adopted on the 25th. The President 
at once despatched a messenger to Texas to an- 
nounce the action of Congress, and to ask for prompt 
co-operation. 

The subject continued before both Houses 
throughout an excited session, during which the 
anti-slavery sentiment of the country received such 
a stirring up as it had never before known. Another 
annexation treaty was concluded, in spite of con- 
tinuous protests of the representative of the Mexi- 
can Government. It received the approval of Con- 
gress on March 1st, and was signed by President 
Tyler on the 2d. He had, as he believed and de- 
clared, crowned his political career by an act which 
secured the permanence of the political policy, the 
constitutional interpretations, and the social institu- 
tion, slavery, which he regarded as essential to the 
welfare of the country. He was ready to retire to 
private life, and to pass the remainder of his days 
as a quiet Virginia gentleman. 

There was to be nothing in Mr. Tyler's retire- 
ment which would greatly resemble the last days of 
other Virginia Presidents of the United States, for 
he left all political influence behind him when he re- 
moved his effects from the Executive Mansion. He 
had not lost social position, nor the warm good-will 
of a host of personal friends, but the very party he 
had restored to power, and had endowed with new 
life, failed to perceive that it owed him anything 



JOHN TYLER. 59 

more than common civility. At the same time, the 
party which had distrusted him while seeming to 
trust him, and whose policy he had been instru- 
mental in defeating, never mentioned his name 
without bitterness. As nearly as might be, he was 
condemned to a term of political exile, but his re- 
tirement was not otherwise uncomfortable. 

There had been boisterous Whig mobs and derisive 
serenades before the White House in Washington 
during the long excitement of his war with the 
Whig leaders, and upon occasions when he had 
vetoed their measures. There was only honorable 
peace and local popularity around his Virginia home. 
During his first year as President he had loyally fol- 
lowed the example of Thomas Jefferson, and had 
spent more than his salary. He came to Washing- 
ton a comparatively poor man, but with a tendency 
to social extravagance to which, for a season, he 
yielded somewhat thoughtlessly. At the end of the 
first year he remembered what became of Monti- 
cello, and changed his manner of living. He re- 
trenched, paid his debts, saved as much from his 
salary as the dignity of his position permitted, and, 
at the end of his term, was able to own a comfort- 
able landed estate, some slaves, and other property, 
and could pass the remainder of his days in the en- 
joyment of the comforts, and of some of the ele- 
gances, of rural life in Virginia. 

The ex-President by no means lost his interest in 
the course of political affairs, for he was in full in- 
tellectual vigor and activity. For a long time the 
affairs of the nation in war and peace, the drift of 



6o JOHN TYLER. 

parties, and the growth of States, seemed to offer a 
justification of the course which he had taken. The 
Mexican War, for which he was so largely respon- 
sible, added not only Texas, but New Mexico, Ari- 
zona, and California to the area of the United 
States, and he could point to them as in a manner 
the fruits of his own statesmanship. The rapid 
growth of the anti-slavery movement at the North 
seemed also to fulfill his predictions, and in his view 
to justify all that he had done with reference to the 
visible necessity of protecting the rights of the 
South, and for the future security of its domestic 
institutions. Then came a more alarming tide of 
events, in and out of Congress, apparently leading 
on toward something politically worse than a merely 
Whig ascendency. The State rights wing of the 
Democratic Party, the Nullification extremists, 
whom he had defended in 1833, began openly to 
organize for the secession of the South from the 
Union, as the Republican Party grew in numbers 
and in power. The irrepressible conflict between 
freedom and slavery was announced by William H. 
Seward. The ultimate extinction of slaver}'- was 
demanded by Mr. Lincoln, when he declared that 
the nation could not long continue half slave and 
half free. 

]\Ir. Tyler sincerely desired and hoped that the 
Union might be preserved, but he saw clearly, as 
did other pro-slavery statesmen, that this was not 
possible unless additional barriers could be raised 
against the rising tide of Abolitionism. He had 
grown old in his retirement, and the new genera- 



JOHN TYLER. 6 1 

tion which had arisen knew him only as an historical 
personage. He belonged to an era away back be- 
fore the war with Mexico, and had been hidden 
away somewhere, while a dozen new States had been 
added to the Union, and while its population had 
more than doubled. 

The strong Union element which existed in Vir- 
ginia, directed by some of the best and ablest men 
of the State, determined to make one last effort for 
peace, even while the Congress of the proposed 
Confederacy assembled and began its sessions at 
Montgomery, Alabama. The State Legislature 
adopted a resolution, January 19th, 1861, calling for 
a convention of delegates from all the States, to 
meet at the city of Washington on February 4th, 
and discuss measures for an adjustment of the pend- 
ing issues between the North and South. Five 
Virginia delegates were named, with ex-President 
John Tyler at their head. The other States re- 
sponded rapidly. Eleven were represented when 
the convention was called to order on February 4th, 
and ten more were quickly added. Many of them 
named their delegates mainly from the list of their 
Senators and representatives in Congress, and the 
Peace Conference, as it was popularly termed, was 
an exceedingly dignified body of the foremost men 
of the nation. lion. John C. Wright, of Ohio, was 
made temporary chairman, but the position of per- 
manent presiding officer was unanimously declared 
to belong to John Tyler. 

As a matter of course, none of the seceding cot- 
ton States had sent delegates to the convention, but 



62 JOHN TYLER. 

their most extreme views and demands were sure of 
adequate representation. 

It was a time of profound excitement. In other 
parts of the country there were noisy demonstra- 
tions for or against secession, but the capital was 
quiet. Men walked about as if they were under a 
sense of oppression, and the air seemed heavy. 
The throngs from the North, which were to witness 
the Lincoln inauguration, had not yet come, and 
even the office-holding part of the city population 
was hardly able to believe that they were coming, 
and were bringing a great change with them. 

The convention met in a room of moderate size, 
known as Willard's Hall, and Mr. Tyler's brief but 
eloquent address upon taking the chair was listened 
to by an uncommonly distinguished audience, as 
well as by the delegates who had then arrived. He 
declared his devotion to the Union, but when he 
added a hope that the labors of the convention 
would result in promoting harmony, all men knew 
that the realization of such a hope could be attained 
only by a surrender by himself, and other men like 
him, of political views which were as a part of his 
and their very life. The idea which they, on the 
other hand, seemed to entertain, was that anti- 
slavery men, in order that disunion and civil war 
might be prevented, should be willing to concede 
very nearly all that the Congress in session at Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, could have asked for, except the 
independence of the Southern Confederacy. 

The debates of the Peace Conference were con- 
ducted with distinguished ability, but through all of 



JOHN TYLER. 63 

them ran an undertone which often found distinct 
expression. The men who made and advocated 
propositions looking toward compromise and adjust- 
ment did so with a growing conviction thiit their 
work was useless. Concurrent debates in Congress, 
and the action of Southern State Legislatures and 
conventions, actual military operations at several 
points, the seizures of forts and arsenals and navy- 
yards, the mustering of armed forces, the warlike 
declarations of prominent men upon both sides, all 
seemed to cast derision upon the sombre delibera- 
tions in Willard's Hall. 

The daily sessions continued, nevertheless, until 
a final adjournment on February 19th, 1861, and 
resulted in the preparation of a proposed amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States. 
This would have been Article XIII. of that instru- 
ment, and contained seven sections embodying pro- 
visions for the protection of slavery where it already 
existed, or wherever the people of any territory form- 
ing into a State, south of prescribed lines, might 
decide in favor of it. Provision was also made for 
the recapture of fugitive slaves, or for compensation 
for them from the National Treasury. Other im- 
portant compromises were combined with these in 
the several articles, and Mr. Tyler was entrusted 
with the honorable duty of bringing the amend- 
ment before Congress, with a request for its presen- 
tation to the several States for action. He per- 
formed his task in a written communication, which 
was presented in the Senate on February 27th, 1861. 
Spirited debates followed in that body and in the 



64 JOHN TYLER. 

House, but no definite action was taken. Before 
Congress adjourned most of the Southern leaders 
had departed to join the Confederacy, and in 
March, 1861, John Tyler himself accepted an elec- 
tion as a member of the Confederate Congress. 

The Peace Conference was a dignified and state- 
ly failure, except in so far as it served to show 
how utterly the day of compromises had gone by. 
The courtesy, fairness, and ability displayed by 
its venerable presiding officer received due recogni- 
tion, although the Northern press had sharp words, 
occasionally, for what they called " a Union meet- 
ing presided over by Nullification and Secession." 

Mr. Tyler's service in the Confederate Congress 
was but brief. He was an old man, unfitted for the 
intense excitements of revolution and civil war, and 
he rapidly wore away under the new demands upon 
his strength. He lived long enough to hear of the 
notable successes which marked the first campaign 
of the Confederacy, and seemed to promise its per- 
manence, but, in January, 1862, it was evident that 
he was failing, and on the 18th of the month he 
passed away. 



Lives of the Presidents of the United States. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 

ELEVENTH PRESIDENT. 



By WILLIAM O. STODDARD. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Pollock Family — Birth of James Knox Polk — 
Moving to Tennessee — Life in the Backwoods — 
Hungry for Books — Clerk in a Country Store — Ai 
School at Last — Graduated from the University, 

Great benefits have been conferred upon the 
United States by the manner in which Ireland has 
been governed by the King and Parliament of Great 
Britain. Long before the colonies dreamed of ever 
fighting for independence, the course taken by 
British legislators with reference to Irish industries 
greatly stimulated emigration to America, by mak- 
ing it more and more difficult, from year to year, 
for the most capable and industrious Irishmen to 
prosper at home. The first to venture across the 
sea in search of new homes and freedom were for 
the greater part from the North of Ireland. They 
were 'of a mixed race, of Norse and Saxon and 



2 * JAMES KNOX POLK. 

Celtic ancestry, which has exhibited quahties not 
surpassed by any other. A considerable number of 
them settled, almost clannishly, in the Carolinas, 
landing at the port of Charleston, and from this 
branch came Andrew Jackson. Another shipload 
sailed up the Delaware and found homes in Pennsyl- 
vania, not far from Carlisle, but some of its families 
did not long remain there. Reports came up from 
the South of a milder climate and better pros- 
pects. There may have been reasons also for dis- 
satisfaction with the state of things in Pennsylvania, 
then under a semi-Quakerish domination. Most of 
the North Ireland emigrants of that day were Pres- 
byterians. 

Among those who shortly determined to abandon 
their first settlement was a highly respectable family 
bearing the name of Pollock, or, as they then pro- 
nounced it, and as it afterward was written, Polk. 
They and their kindred of other names made new 
homes for themselves on what was then the western 
border of the North Carolina settlements, at a date 
not precisely fixed, but several years before the long 
dispute between England and her American colonies 
grew into an armed conflict. 

Unlike the great majority of British colonists, the 
Scotch-Irish brought with them very little senti- 
mental loyalty. They came into the wilderness 
smarting under a sense of wrongs already endured, 
and were peculiarly prepared for active resentment 
of any additional injustice. Their North Carolina 
representatives were among the earliest and most 
zealous of American rebels. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 3 

Patrick Henry himself was not more prompt in 
calling his Virginia neighbors to arms, on hearing 
from Lexington, than was Colonel Thomas Polk 
among the Mecklenburg County pioneers. Accord- 
ing to tradition, and fairly authentic record, a con- 
vention which was held, with Colonel Polk as chair- 
man, adopted what is called "the Mecklenburg 
Declaration of Independence" months before the 
Virginia Legislature instructed the delegates of that 
State in the Continental Congress to favor a separa- 
tion from the mother country. 

Thomas Polk was afterward a member of Congress, 
and Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of North Caro- 
lina Militia. His brother Ezekiel, also an active 
member of the Mecklenburg Convention, became 
captain of a company of rangers, whose military 
service was performed in the woods and mountains, 
guarding the border from the incursions of the Ind- 
ian allies of Great Britain. 

Samuel Polk, a son of Ezekiel, grew to manhood 
through the stirring years of the Revolutionary strug- 
gle. His father, the Indian fighter, could not be- 
queath to him much property, and he became a plain 
farmer, well known as a man of good common sense, 
and possessing personal influence among his neigh- 
bors. He was not an illiterate man, and among his 
acquirements was a knowledge of land surveying. 
In the year 1794 he married Jane Knox, whose very 
name suggests the sources from which the Scotch- 
Irish immigrants derived their spirit of sturdy inde- 
pendence and their readiness to make a stand against 
the authority of any human king. Her father, 



4 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

James Knox, had been a patriot captain in the War 
for Independence. 

There was an important event in the Mecklenburg 
County farmhouse on November 2d, 1795. A son 
was born, and his father and mother named him 
James Knox Polk, without the faintest dream that 
he would ever become Governor of a State, or Chief 
Magistrate of a great nation. There was less than 
ordinary reason to expect great success in life for a 
child who was delicate from the first, and whose earlier 
years were troubled by a bodily afftiction, from which 
he was at last relieved only by skilful surgery. 

James was, nevertheless, a boy of a courageous 
disposition, and soon began to show signs of extraor- 
dinary intelligence. There were almost no schools 
within reach, and books were few, although his par- 
ents did the best they could for him ; but from the 
narrow resources at his command he managed to 
obtain the beginning of a good education. The 
most important part of that beginning lay in the 
fact that a great thirst for knowledge had been 
aroused within him, and with it an ambition to be- 
come something higher and better than a mere back- 
woodsman. 

The Polk family had taken a prominent part in 
politics from the day of their arrival in North Caro- 
lina, but Samuel Polk was not an aspirant for any 
party leadership. He was an ardent admirer of 
Thomas Jefferson, in opposition to aristocratic Fed- 
eralism, and the earliest political lessons received by 
his son can be traced in their effect upon every step 
of an entirely consistent political career. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 5 

The western part of North Carolina labored under 
many disadvantages, some of which have hardly been 
remedied by the railway system of the present day, 
and enterprising, hard-working farmers grew restless 
when, year after year, they found their moderate 
crops bringing them such small returns. Hardly was 
the War of the Revolution over before some of theln 
turned their faces farther westward still, and began 
to penetrate the toilsome passes of the mountain 
ranges. All the land due west of the old colony, 
to the bank of the Mississippi, was claimed as be- 
longing to the State of North Carolina, and Meck- 
lenburg emigrants who preferred not to go north of 
the Virginia-Kentucky line, only moved from one 
county to another of their own commonwealth. 
The first companies of pioneers halted in what is 
now East Tennessee, mainly because the forests be- 
yond were tenaciously claimed and defended by 
tribes of Indians whose power had not yet been 
broken. 

A small settlement was made at Nashville, on the 
Cumberland River, as early as 1779, and it was still 
fighting for its life in 1788, when Andrew Jackson 
went to make his home there to practice law and 
fight Indians. Year after year the North Carolina 
farmers talked more and more hopefully among 
themselves about the reported attractions of the 
Cumberland and Tennessee River country, and, in 
1806, Samuel Polk decided that the time had come 
for him to make a new start in life. 

The Mecklenburg County home was disposed of, 
and the family, to which several children had now 



6 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

been added, prepared for a long and toilsome jour- 
ney. It was a tremendous undertaking, since James, 
the oldest boy, was but eleven years of age, and the 
little ones seemed hardly fitted for enduring the 
possible exposures incident to camping out in the 
woods week after week. The Polk children, how- 
ever, knew nothing of the softer side of civilized life, 
and it is likely that they made the trip something 
like a prolonged picnic, full of excitements, novel- 
ties, and small adventures. 

A number of widely-scattered farms had already 
been opened along Duck River, a principal tribu- 
tary of the Tennessee, and it was among these that 
Samuel Polk had determined to make his own clear- 
ing and build his log-cabin home. In the next year, 
1807, the Duck River settlements were included in 
the new County of Maury, afterward divided into 
several counties, but a whole generation afterward 
that United States Congressional District was still 
described by the political press as " the Duck River 
District." 

The new country was found to be all that had been 
told of it, including a certain degree of insecurity as 
yet from the incursions of adventurous Indian war 
parties. The Kentucky pioneers on the north were 
said to be suffering severely from the daring exploits 
of two young Shawnees, named Tecumseh and Els- 
kawatawa, and their immediate band of followers. 

The Creeks and Cherokees and Choctaws to the 
southward were every now and then heard from 
suddenly and terribly, but they were not likely to 
penetrate as far as Duck River, on account of chas- 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 7 

tisements latterly inflicted upon them by the Tennes- 
see militia against the policy of the Government at 
Washington. So good a report did Samuel Polk 
send back to North Carolina, and so firm was the 
confidence reposed in his judgment and accuracy of 
statement that all his kith and kin began to sell their 
farms and follow him into Tennessee. They had 
lost little of their Scotch-Irish clannishness, and the 
Polk family interest became a social and political 
power in the Duck River country. 

So young a boy as James, and not very strong, 
was hardly ready for the rough work of opening a 
new farm in the forest, but there was enough for 
even him to do. Long wagon trips had to be un- 
dertaken from time to time to obtain supplies. Even 
hunting was an important business, and required 
prolonged absences from the homestead. Samuel 
Polk was also much employed as a surveyor. On 
expeditions of all sorts, it is related that James ac- 
companied his father, taking care of the horses, 
keeping camp while hunts or surveys went on, and 
serving as cook and steward. Weeks together were 
often spent in the woods instead of at any school, 
and the longed-for education, the knowledge to be 
had from books, the higher intellectual life, seemed 
to be far away indeed. 

Year after year went by without any important 
feature other than such as belonged to pioneer farm 
life. James attained a fair degree of health, but it 
was the fixed opinion of his parents and friends that 
he would never be strong enough to manage a farm 
of his own. Much less was he fitted for the tre- 



8 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

mendous task readily undertaken by other young 
fellows of hewing out a farm for himself in the 
primeval forest. He seemed heavily weighted for 
any race for success to be run in such a community 
as that of Duck River. The people of the new 
countries placed great importance upon personal 
prowess, for other reasons than such as pertained to 
chopping, ploughing, and reaping. No man could 
foretell at what hour or where he might be called 
upon to stand for his life against some foe or other — 
brute or human. All men knew that James K. Polk 
was not much of a hunter, and that he would never 
do for a soldier, and his fondness for books did not 
yet impress anybody with the idea that he possessed 
other and more important elements of leadership 
than mere bone and sinew could have given him. 

The stream of immigration continued to pour 
steadily in, and a fair degree of rude prosperity had 
been won by the earlier settlers. Samuel Polk had 
prospered beyond anything he could have hoped for 
in North Carolina, but he had now a family of ten 
children to provide for, and it was manifest that 
James must make his own way in life. The boy 
begged for more schooling, but it was not so clear to 
his father that over much learning could be turned 
to profitable account in such times as they were hav- 
ing in Tennessee. Crops were good, but ready 
money was very scarce, and schooling cost money, 
while there was a serious uncertainty as to its ever 
returning any cash dividends. James had never 
shown any turn for trade, but he already knew more 
about arithmetic and that sort of thing than did 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 9 

most boys of his age. His father therefore obtained 
for him a place in a country store, where he could 
learn the ways and methods of miscellaneous traffic, 
looking forward to a day when he might become a 
merchant on his own account. There was a plain 
road to wealth in that direction, but the more James 
K. Polk looked at it the stronger became his convic- 
tion that it was not the right path for him. He 
went behind the counter and made the trial for a 
season, in obedience to his father's decision. No 
doubt he picked up useful information, for a coun- 
try store in Tennessee was a sort of curiosity shop 
of all things raised or needed, bought or sold, by the 
entire community. There were men and women 
who came and went who were well worth studying, 
and there was leisure time for such additional books 
as could now be obtained. There was the difficulty, 
for every book that was read increased the young 
man's hunger for more, and he very shortly went 
again to his father with his plea for an education. 

Samuel Polk was by no means a narrow-minded 
man, and he was not unable to appreciate the men- 
tal capacity already exhibited by his oldest son. 
Other people had taken note of it, and were begin- 
ning to think that something worth while might be 
made of him. The whole matter was reconsidered, 
and it was determined that James should have his 
way, cost what it might. In the year 1813, when 
he was eighteen years of age, he was placed under 
the tuition of the Rev. Dr. Henderson for a while, 
and after that was sent to the academy which had 
been established at Murfreesborough. All his pre- 



lO JAMES KNOX POLK. 

vious attempts to educate himself became of value 
now, and in less than two years he had prepared to 
enter the sophomore class at the University of 
North Carolina. Against apparently insurmount- 
able difficulties he had won a brilliant victory, and 
his father might well have been proud of him. He 
was more so three years later, when his son was 
graduated from the university with the first honors 
of his class, and came back to the farmhouse to be 
looked upon by all the neighbors as one of the most 
promising young men in all the Duck River settle- 
ments, if not in the State of Tennessee. Samuel 
Polk lived until 1827, and each successive year 
brought him a sort of harvest from the money he 
had wisely sown in the education of his son. 



CHAPTER II. 

Studying Law — Felix Grundy — Young Tennessee and 
Andrew Jackson — Polk Admitted to the Bar — 
Elected to the Legislature — Marriage — TJie Jack- 
son Campaign — A Member of Congress. 

Except for occasional Indian raids and alarms in 
the more exposed parts of Tennessee, the period 
between 1806, when the Polk family moved in, and 
the year 1812 when James was vainly trying to turn 
himself into a merchant, was comparatively unevent- 
ful. Not many newspapers found their way into 
Maury County, and the people there knew little of 
what was going on in the States of the Atlantic sea- 
board, and almost nothing concerning the course of 
events in the world beyond the sea. 

No Federalism worth speaking of had ever made 
its appearance west of the mountains, and the voters 
were all members of the Republican Party, divid- 
ing on election days according to their individual 
preferences among candidates, or with reference to 
questions of State and local importance. Political 
canvasses, therefore, lacked some of the features 
which marked them in other parts of the Union, and 
young men grew up without much knowledge of 
national affairs, unless, like young Polk, they were 
engaged in a patient and ceaseless search for better 
information. All the more was such a seeker sure 



12 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

of becoming a man of mark, a popular leader, to 
whom the uninstructed masses would look up for 
counsel and direction. 

The news that came from the East kept alive the 
idea that there was trouble brewing with England, 
and there was a rooted conviction in the minds of 
the people that she was in secret alliance with the 
Indian tribes of both the Northern and Southern 
borders. 

In 1811 came tidings of Harrison's victory over 
the Prophet and his warriors at Tippecanoe, and all 
men were aware that Henry Clay, of Kentucky, 
was loudly demanding a war. From that time on- 
ward there was a new topic for discussion, for An- 
drew Jackson, Major-General of the Tennessee Mili- 
tia, was busily organizing his division, and getting 
it ready for active service in case Mr. Clay's confident 
prophecies should prove correct. 

James K. Polk, by reason of his age, if not for 
physical reasons, could not be counted as a member 
of Jackson's division, and there was no need of 
him whatever. War with Great Britain was de- 
clared on June 12th, 1812, and the General was ready 
for it with twenty-five hundred men. In the middle 
of the following Winter he went down the river with 
over two thousand, by land and water, only to turn 
back again on reaching Natchez, and lead his force 
home in a manner which earned him the title of Old 
Hickory and the devoted admiration of all the boys 
in Tennessee. During the remaining years of the 
war James K. Polk was busy with his preparations for 
college, but, just before he was ready to set out for 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 13 

North Carolina, news came up the river that the rifle- 
men of Tennessee and Kentucky, under their heroic 
commander, had defeated the best troops in the 
British army before New Orleans. It was a proud 
day for the entire State, and when the disbanded 
volunteers came home and told their stories, all the 
men who had not fought under Jackson were so 
much the more ready to vote with him to the end 
of their natural lives. 

Young Polk's college life was necessarily some- 
what quiet. He was not disposed to waste time or 
strength in dissipation, and he was not over-supplied 
with money. His extreme punctuality was a sort 
of standing joke among his classmates, and continued 
a marked trait of his character. He confined him- 
self even too closely to his search after knowledge, 
and when, in 181 8, his college course was ended, his 
health was so seriously impaired as to require a long 
vacation at home. That very Spring General Jack- 
son had performed another remarkable feat. He 
had finished the Creek campaign in less than five 
months, had chased the beaten Indians across the 
Spanish line into Florida, had taken a Spanish fort, 
and had hanged two Indian chiefs and two English- 
men. Again, all the young men of Tennessee were 
more than ready to agree with the majority of the 
House of Representatives, and with Secretary of 
State Adams, that their hero had done exactly 
right. They would have said so if he had stormed 
all the Spanish forts in Florida and hanged all the 
Indian chiefs and all the Englishmen. 

Young Polk rapidly recovered a fair degree of 



14 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

health and was in no doubt whatever as to his pro- 
posed career. He had long since determined to be 
a lawyer, and that choice almost carried with it the 
further assurance that he was to be a politician. 

In 1 8 19 he entered as a student the law office of 
Felix Grundy, at Nashville, and here he was in the 
very political home of General Jackson. The Gen- 
eral's plantation was but a few miles out of town, 
and he was himself a frequent visitor at Mr. Grundy's 
office. The latter held a deservedly high rank in 
his profession, and possessed a political influence 
which extended beyond the limits of his own State. 
In the Congress of the United States and in the 
councils of the leaders of his own party, he was re- 
garded as one of the most capable men in the nation. 

There was nothing repellent in the manners of 
General Jackson. For young men particularly he 
possessed a peculiar fascination. His frank and 
kindly courtesy won them to him wherever he went, 
predisposed in his favor as most of them were by all 
they had read or heard of his adventurous, romantic 
career. He won the very heart of Mr. Grundy's 
law student, and all the inherited prejudices, the 
political training, and the social tendencies of James 
K. Polk were in perfect accord with those of his 
chosen leader. Andrew Jackson's father and mother 
were Scotch-Irish immigrants who had settled in 
North Carolina. So, on both sides, were the parents 
of Samuel Polk and Jane Knox, and their son knew 
that Jackson had been riding with Sumter, while his 
ov/n grandfather had been leading the Mecklenburg 
company of rangers. A time was coming when all 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 1 5 

this was to be of even national importance, for a 
President was to need a leader of the House of 
Representatives upon whose personal and political 
fidelity he could utterly rely. 

The United States was almost destitute of politics 
in the year 1818. It was " the era of good feeling," 
James Monroe was President, there were no parties, 
the country was prosperous, the Indians, except on 
the Georgia borders, were reasonably quiet, the 
treaty with Spain for the purchase of Florida was 
even more sure to come at once, after Jackson had 
shown how easily all that wild land could be had for 
nothing, and men went about their business as if all 
things had at last been settled and were not likely 
to be soon stirred up again. 

It was a sort of calm before a storm. The great 
debates over the admissioaof Missouri as a State of 
the Union began in the Winter session of Congress, 
1819-20, and the political contest of which they 
were the prophecy lasted through half a century. 

It was generally adrhitted that James Monroe was 
entitled to a second term as President of the United 
States ; all the leading politicians were at sea as to 
the political future, and so there was no division of 
votes worth mentioning in the year 1820. One 
elector voted for John Quincy Adams and all the 
rest for Mr. Monroe. 

In the course of that year James K. Polk was ad- 
mitted to the bar, and the rapidity with which he 
had prepared himself suggests what may have been 
the nature of some of his overwork while at the 
university. He at once returned to Maury County 



l6 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

and opened a law office at the village of Columbia. 
He was pretty well assured that all the Polk family, 
and all their kindred and connections, and every 
neighbor over whom they had any influence, would 
do what they could to increase his list of clients. 

While Polk had been studying law in the office of 
Felix Grundy, Andrew Jackson had been building 
the new brick house which became famous as the 
Hermitage. At the same time his friend. Major 
Lewis, Quartermaster of the Tennessee Militia, had 
been skilfully planning a nomination of the General 
for President of the United States. He had his 
agents and correspondents all over the State, and 
one of them was a young lawyer in Columbia, Maury 
County. The work prospered prodigiously, and on 
July 20th, 1822, it had progressed so far that the 
Legislature of Tennessee adopted a regular pream- 
ble and resolutions, setting forth the merits and 
services of General Jackson, and recommending him 
to all the rest of the nation as the right man to go 
into the White House when Mr. Monroe should go 
out. After that the Jackson movement spread fast 
in other States, and there was just enough of oppo- 
sition in his own to make it worth while for his ad- 
herents to hold public meetings and make eloquent 
speeches. 

The political career of James K. Polk fairly began 
with the plans of enthusiastic Major Lewis. Already 
a good country law practice had made the young 
man independent of further assistance from his fam- 
ily, and now he made them more proud of him than 
ever by the remarkable faculty he was exhibiting as 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 17 

a stump speaker. He seemed to know precisely 
what to do with a crowd of Tennesseeans. Even a 
dull man could have made them all hurrah for Jack- 
son, but the young lawyer went a step beyond that, 
and made them also hurrah for Polk. The Duck 
River people were entirely satisfied with the course 
of their brilliant young neighbor, and, in 1823, they 
elected him a member of the State Legislature. 
They sent him again, in 1824, very much as a mat- 
ter of course, for they heard of him continually as 
doing them great credit by the ability he was dis- 
playing, and by his vigilant care of all their interests, 
especially of their interest in the election of General 
Jackson. 

During those years the Legislature had much busi- 
ness before it of a strictly legislative character, for 
the State was growing fast, but the entire body con- 
sidered that its most important work was the regu- 
lation of the affairs of the nation, particularly with 
reference tO' the Presidency. 

At the opening of the year 1824, James K. Polk 
took yet another important forward step in life. On 
New Year's Day he was married to Miss Sarah Child- 
ress, eldest daughter of Joel Childress, a wealthy 
merchant of Rutherford, Tennessee, a very estimable 
young lady of many accomplishments. She was 
eminently well fitted for the brilliant social career 
opened to her by that New Year's Day wedding. 

There was a very remarkable Presidential cam- 
paign that year, for it was personal and sectional 
rather than a strife between organized parties. No- 
body could guess until the votes were actually 



l8 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

counted what, or nearly what, the decision of the 
people might be. Those who knew most, and said 
so, were the most widely mistaken, for the people 
failed to decide. They had so divided their electors 
among four candidates that neither was elected. 
Andrew Jackson had ninety-nine votes ; John 
Quincy Adams, eighty-four ; William Harris Craw- 
ford, forty-one, and Henry Clay, thirty-seven. 
Henry Clay had also a controlling influence and po- 
sition in the House of Representatives, and was able, 
when the decision of the matter came before that 
body, to make a President of John Quincy Adams 
and a lifelong enemy of Andrew Jackson. From 
that time forward, the sister States of Kentucky and 
Tennessee were long in the habit of voting upon op- 
posite sides of political questions. 

The Tennessee Legislature bitterly resented the 
failure of their nomination. They had elected their 
hero to the United States Senate in 1823, and now, 
when he came home and resigned and retired to the 
Hermitage, they gave him at once a second Presi- 
dential nomination, while Major Lewis in the West, 
and Martin Van Buren in the North, and some very 
able men in the Southeastern States undertook to 
organize a victory for him. 

In all the debates of the legislative sessions of 1824 
James K. Polk had distinguished himself, and was 
regarded all over the State as the most promising 
of the younger members of the Assembly. The 
Sixth Congressional District, however, the Duck 
River District, decided that he had been there long 
enough, and, in August, 1825, they elected him to 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 19 

the Congress of the United States. He took his seat 
in December of that year at the age of thirty. 

Thus far the determined industry of the boy who 
had started in life with so poor a prospect had been 
rewarded wonderfully. His education, his rigidly 
correct habits of life, his unblemished reputation, his 
excellent standing as a lawyer, his home, his power- 
ful political friends, his place in the councils of the 
nation, all were in one sense a harvest of his own 
planting and reaping. It is nevertheless true that 
he had enjoyed peculiar advantages. After once 
making a good beginning, he had had less competi- 
tion than that which would surely have opposed and 
hindered him in an older and more generally edu- 
cated community. Moreover, while no lands or 
other property had descended to him from his an- 
cestry, it was of very great importance to his career 
that he inherited a good colonial and Revolutionary 
family name, and with it a strong hold upon the 
Duck River constituency and the personal friend- 
ship of Andrew Jackson. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Texas Annexation Question — Elcctioii of Presi- 
dent Jackson — T]ie Bank War — Mr. Polk and 
Judge White — Defence of the President' s Veto of 
the Turnpike Bill. 

Taking his seat in December, 1825, Mr. Polk may- 
be said to have begun his career in Congress with 
the year 1826. As the Duck River District was to 
re-elect him continuously until 1839, he had come to 
stay. He had been elected as an active agent in 
the great Jacksonian Democratic political campaign, 
and it was part of the policy adopted by the General 
and his lieutenants that neither he nor they should 
take dangerously decided ground upon any exciting 
question while the canvass was going on. A new 
campaign had begun and prudence continued. Gen- 
eral Jackson had, indeed, argued before the Tennes- 
see Legislature in favor of an amendment to the 
Constitution, providing for elections of Presidents 
directly by the people. He was known to be an 
enemy of wildcat banks and paper money, and so 
was Martin Van Buren, his lieutenant in New York, 
but the United States Bank question was not yet 
before the country. It was at first more than a lit- 
tle uncertain what would be Jackson's course with 
reference to internal improvements and the tariff, 
and there, at least, James K. Polk was ahead of his 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 21 

leader. The new representative from Tennessee 
was a free trade advocate, and a moderate strict Con- 
structionist, opposed to internal improvements from 
the beginning. 

The seeming requirements of the Treasury- 
strengthened the hands of the high-tariff men, and 
Henry Clay, now Secretary of State, retained for a 
time his old influence in Congress. He was able to 
do much for a protectionist policy even when, a year 
later, both Houses of Congress contained majorities 
opposed to the administration of President Adams. 
In his first message to the Congress which had de- 
cided the electoral question in his favor, the Presi- 
dent had recommended : 

" The maturing into a permanent and regular system the appli- 
cation of all the surplus revenues of the Union to internal im- 
provement." 

John Quincy Adams claimed to be a representa- 
tive statesman of the Republican Party, but Mr. 
Polk, and other Jacksonians, declared that in this and 
in other features of his declared policy they discov- 
ered the teachings of his Federalist father, John 
Adams. 

The subject of slavery was not before the Congress 
of 1826-27 in any dangerous form, and Mr. Polk had 
not then an opportunity for making a distinct record. 
He had no need for so doing, since the planters along 
Duck River, including his own kindred, were all 
slaveholders, and he had himself become one as soon 
as his means permitted. 

The political canvass of 1824 had already brought 



2 2 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

to the surface a matter which was to be of greater 
importance than any other in the political career and 
public services of James K. Polk. It was the Texas 
annexation question, so generally believed to have 
been born in a later day. 

When, in 1803, Thomas Jefferson purchased the 
Louisiana territory of Napoleon, First Consul of 
France, the region transferred was not defined by 
an accurate map, nor were its Spanish- Florida boun- 
dary lines upon the east, nor its Spanish-Mexican 
line at the Southwest indicated in writing with clear- 
ness. 

The Florida part of the disputes, which arose in 
consequence, was not terminated until the purchase 
of Florida from Spain in 18 19, nominally by Presi- 
dent Monroe, but really through the persistent 
efforts of John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State. 
There were many Americans, among them Mr. Polk, 
who strongly held the opinion that the district known 
as Texas had been a part of the Louisiana territory. 
The boundary between the original French and 
Spanish possessions had never been surveyed or set- 
tled, each power keeping somewhat in the back- 
ground a first-discovery claim to the same indefinite 
tract of wild land, of no great present value, lying 
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and extend- 
ing, nobody could say how far, into the cloudy in- 
terior of the continent of North America. The 
French title to this indefinite land had found eager 
defenders even in President Jefferson's time, and 
their opinions grew stronger, and they obtained more 
hearers, as the importance of Louisiana and the Gulf 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 23 

country became better and more widely understood. 
There had been sharp criticisms of the treaty of 18 19 
acquiring Florida, because it mentioned the Sabine 
River and not the Rio Grande as the boundary of 
Spanish-Mexican possessions, but Congress had 
agreed to the treaty, and President Monroe had been 
praised highly for securing it. 

In 1824, however, the Jacksonian assailants of 
Mr. Adams as a candidate for election as President 
came forward with a vehemently-urged accusation 
that, in 18 19, as Secretary of State, he had need- 
lessly and negligently sacrificed the just right and 
title of the United States to a vast province. It 
was true that Spain had even then but a feeble and 
failing hold upon Mexico, which she had since lost 
altogether, and was in poor condition to have given 
a good title to the country south of the Sabine, but 
Mr. Adams was charged with having thrown away 
the old French ownership when he had it in his 
power to extend and confirm it in the hands of his 
own country. For, whatever it was worth, it was 
now Mexican property, and there seemed to be small 
prospect of its ever becoming anything else. 

That charge against President Adams, and that 
partisan reassertion of the French claim to Texas, 
distinctly committed the coming administrations of 
Jackson and Van Buren to a policy of annexation. 

The whole nation was in a state of political effer- 
vescence during 1827, and seemed to give itself up 
entirely during the year 1828 to the fierce excite- 
ments of the Presidential canvass. Never before 
had partisan feeling run so high, and the floodgates 



24 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

of personal abuse and calumny were opened wide. 
Both candidates were accused of all the political 
errors and crimes which could be invented, and Gen- 
eral Jackson was painted as a bloodthirsty murderer. 
That he had been a severe military disciplinarian 
there was no doubt, and he had fought at least one 
fatal duel of a peculiarly savage nature, but he was 
really a man of humane and kindly disposition. 
James K. Polk was opposed to duelling upon princi- 
ple and never took part in such an affair, but quite a 
number of prominent men opposed to Jackson had 
fought duels, and more were avowed apologists for 
the strange barbarism miscalled the code of honor. 
There was nothing in his fighting record to harm 
him in Tennessee, however, and the entire State 
polled but three thousand votes against him. 

There were two hundred and sixty-one votes in 
the United States electoral colleges that year, and 
Andrew Jackson received one hundred and seventy- 
eight of them, against only eighty-three for John 
Quincy Adams. The triumph of the new party had 
been largely in excess of its most sanguine expecta- 
tions, and it assumed control of national affairs with 
a seemingly strong and compact majority in both 
Houses of Congress. The course taken by the 
President, nevertheless, speedily developed the fact 
that neither in the Senate nor in the House of 
Representatives was he absolute master of the situ- 
ation. The former body exercised its Constitutional 
right to criticise his nominations, and actually re- 
jected some of them, while the latter proved entirely 
unmanageable the moment he touched upon the 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 25 

United States Bank question and began to veto bills 
for internal improvements. 

If there were any points in the earlier course of 
the Jackson Administration which Mr. Polk privately 
criticised, he made no public utterance of his criti- 
cisms. He was recognized as one of the President's 
political body guard, ready at all times and places 
to give him a peculiarly efficient support. 

The President's hostility to the Bank of the 
United States began to manifest itself in the Sum- 
mer of 1829, but he could do nothing of importance 
before the assembling of Congress in December. 
In another direction he set on foot a movement 
which became of vast importance to the future of 
the United States as a whole and to James K. Polk 
in particular, 

Mr. Poinsett, of South Carohna, had been sent to 
Mexico as Minister of the United States by Presi- 
dent Adams, but he was at heart a Jackson man, a 
friend of the new Vice-President, John C. Calhoun, 
and was not at once recalled by the new Administra- 
tion. He afterward remained for yet another rea- 
son. Mr. Adams had been, at one time, ardently 
in favor of extending the domain of the nation until 
it should include, as nearly as might be, the entire 
continent. He only ceased to be so afterward, 
when territorial extension became another name for 
the extension of slavery. In 1827, or earUer, through 
Mr. Clay, Secretary of State, a vague authority had 
been given Mr. Poinsett to negotiate for the pur- 
chase of Texas. A milhon of dollars was supposed 
to be enough, in the utterly impoverished condition 



2 6 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

of the Treasury of the then very new Republic. 
He had as yet accomplished nothing, when, in 1829, 
he was encouraged by the new Secretary of State, 
Mr. Van Buren, to push his work with greater en- 
ergy, the disposable sum of money being increased 
to four, or even to five, millions of dollars. It was 
necessary that he should proceed with prudent se- 
crecy, but he failed to do so, and entangled himself 
in such a manner with warring factions that at last 
the Mexican Congress passed a vote ordering him 
to leave the country. Meantime, however, the 
newspaper press of the United States printed sensa- 
tional accounts of his authority and probable success, 
and a fever of excitement was aroused in the South 
and West. The district known to Mexican politi- 
cians as Texas began at the Sabine River, extended 
along the coast uncertainly, but not farther than the 
Nueces River, and only a few hundred miles into the 
interior. Mr. Poinsett's negotiations did not name 
the Rio Grande as a boundary, but the ideas enter- 
tained by Americans of the old French title, and of 
any new title to be bought or taken, did so from the 
beginning. Their view of the interior dimensions 
carried them back to the border of New Mexico, 
wherever that shadowy line might be. 

The Southwestern States contained a number of 
daring adventurers, many of them owners of slaves 
and other property, to whom the idea of going in to 
take possession of an entirely new country had an 
irresistible attraction. There was something pa- 
triotic about it, so far as the whole United States 
was concerned, and there was more that was South- 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 27 

ern and sectional, for it was plainly understood that 
Texas was to become a slave State, a counterpoise 
to the swiftly-growing power of the non-slavehold- 
ing North. A stream of emigration poured over the 
border, and shiploads of adventurers landed at the 
Texas ports of the Gulf. 

Texas was a State of the Mexican Republic, and 
there were no laws to hinder the incoming of Ameri- 
can settlers, but there were very positive laws forbid- 
ding the importation or holding of slaves. Perhaps 
it was of equal importance that the Mexican Govern- 
ment at that time lacked the military power to en- 
force its nominal authority over a very large part 
of its territory. 

The long war of Andrew Jackson against the Bank 
of the United States began in due form, but with 
seeming moderation of expression in his first mes- 
sage to Congress in December, 1829. He called 
attention to the fact that the bank charter would 
expire in 1836, questioned both the constitutionality 
and the expediency of such an institution, and de- 
clared that it had failed to provide the country with 
a sound currency. Congress listened without feel- 
ing called upon to take any immediate action, and 
the friends of the bank began to rally their forces 
for the purpose of obtaining the charter which the 
President had determined to refuse them. From 
the beginning to the end of the struggle which fol- 
lowed, James K. Polk was entirely in accord with his 
leader, but he was first heard from upon another 
subject. 

The tariff question had been temporarily settled 



2 8 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

by the previous Congress in such a manner as to 
produce deep dissatisfaction among the people of 
the South. Threatening murmurs came northward 
at times, especially from Georgia and South Caro- 
lina, and there were leading politicians who began 
to talk with startling emphasis about the reserved 
rights of the States, including the right to leave the 
Union altogether. There was a general feeling of 
uneasiness rather than alarm, until, at the annual 
public dinner in honor of Thomas Jefferson's birth- 
day, April 13th, 1830, the tone of the regularly-ap- 
pointed toasts led President Jackson to respond with, 
" The Federal Union : It must be preserved." 

A coldness had already begun between the Presi- 
dent and Mr. Calhoun, the Vice-President, and it 
grew colder when the latter now followed with a 
toast which plainly asserted that there might be cir- 
cumstances under which the Union could not be 
preserved. Neither then nor afterward was there 
any reason to question Mr. Polk's devotion to the 
Union, and through all the phases of the subsequent 
Nullification excitement, he was as steady against 
that heresy as was Jackson himself. 

A time was at hand for the young member from 
Tennessee to step out from the comparative obscur- 
ity in which he had thus far been hidden. He had 
been by no means a silent looker-on, and had done 
good work in connection with the important com- 
mittees to which he had been assigned, but there 
were many able men in that Congress, and it was 
not easy for a new comer to obtain prominence 
among them. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 29 

The majority of the Senate as well as of the 
House was in favor of internal improvements, but 
the celebrated Maysville and Lexington Turnpike 
Bill originated in the latter, and therefore came 
back to it with a veto message from the Presi- 
dent. Mr. Polk had vigorously opposed the bill in 
all its stages, and now, when the question came be- 
fore the House, " Shall the bill pass, the President's 
objections notwithstanding?" he displayed, in de- 
fending the veto message, an eloquence and force 
which at once entitled him to rank among the fore- 
most of the very capable debaters around him. Full 
reports of that debate went to Tennessee, and the 
Duck River planters were more than ever proud of 
their representative. He had "stood by the old 
man, and there was enough stood with him to defeat 
the opposition." Many of them were enabled to 
discover at once what were their own views upon the 
great subject of internal improvements. They 
agreed entirely with " the old man and Jim Polk." 

In 1 83 1 the first Cabinet of President Jackson was 
broken up by the absurdities of what is known as 
" the Eaton affair." One of the changes made had 
a singular effect, years afterward, upon Tennessee 
politics, and upon the unity of the Jacksonian De- 
mocracy. Major Eaton, Secretary of War, had been 
a Senator from Tennessee, and his place had been 
filled by the election of Hugh L. White, one of the 
best and most popular men in all the Southwest. 
General Jackson now, through several mutual 
friends, particularly through James K. Polk, urged 
Judge White to accept the position of Secretary 



30 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

of War vacated by the resignation of Major Eaton. 
It was an honorable ofifice, but the offer was well un- 
derstood to imply Eaton's return to the Senate by 
White's help. It was, in fact, a sort of trade, and 
the proposition was not only declined but was 
keenly resented. Up to that day the President had 
had no better friend than Judge White, but their 
political paths began to separate thenceforward. A 
knot of capable men, all strong supporters of Jack- 
son, all Republicans in name, grew colder and colder 
in their party allegiance, until at last, in 1840, they 
organized the Whig Party of Tennessee and swept 
the State for Harrison. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Mr. Polk a Leader — Chairman of the Cornmittee of 
Ways a7id Means — Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives — The Removal of the Deposits from the 
Bank of the United States. 

In the beginning of the year 1832, during which 
Andrew Jackson was to come before the people as 
a candidate for re-election, there were three fairly 
defined factions in the Congress of the United 
States. Each faction, however, contained a num- 
ber of men who were ready to act with either of the 
others upon some of the great questions of the day. 
The extreme State rights faction, headed by John 
C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, and John Tyler, of 
Virginia, was divided upon the Bank question, and 
even upon Nullification itself, but was ready to fight 
any kind of high tariff, or to assail the President per- 
sonally. For instance, it was by Mr. Calhoun's 
casting vote in the Senate, as Vice-President, that 
Martin Van Buren's nomination as Minister to Eng- 
land was defeated. 

The high-tariff party, mainly in favor of the 
United States Bank and of internal improvements, 
absolutely hating the President and all his ways, 
contained many extreme advocates of territorial ex- 
tension. It was the nucleus of the Whig Party and 
was led by Henry Clay. 



32 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

The Jackson Democratic Party, the President's 
own, could at times rally a majority of both Houses, 
and could at all times muster strength enough to 
prevent any bill from passing over the President's 
veto by a two-thirds vote. Of this firm and trust- 
worthy phalanx James K. Polk was now rapidly be- 
coming the acknowledged leader. It contained no 
more skilful parliamentarian or master of the tactics 
required in managing a bill before the House. It 
was rich in men of long political experience, but 
could not boast of a more ready, eloquent, and forci- 
ble champion in debate than the young member from 
Tennessee. 

The charter of the Bank of the United States was 
not to expire until 1836, but a bill for a new charter 
was brought before Congress in 1832, in order, it 
was stated, that the great financial interests involved 
might not suffer from undue uncertainty. It was a 
Senate bill, and was passed by that body on June 
nth by a vote of twenty-eight to twenty, the ma- 
jority including the State rights men. When the 
matter came before the House of Representatives 
Mr. Polk distinguished himself by his opposition, 
but the combined factions arrayed against him were 
too powerful. The bill passed the House on July 
3d, by a vote of one hundred and nine to ninety-six, 
the majority here also including all the State rights 
men, and it was loudly declared by short-sighted 
people that General Jackson's power had been 
broken. It had not been hurt. He took a week to 
prepare his message, aided by the group of able 
counselors who had received the name of his Kitch- 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 33 

en Cabinet, and on July loth he sent the Bank 
Act back to the Senate with a veto message, which 
placed him before the country as the champion of 
hard money and the people's rights, as against paper 
money and oppressive monopolies, such as the over- 
swollen Bank of the United States. He was the 
people's President, defending the poor against the 
rich. There could be very little reasonable doubt of 
the effect of such an appeal, but even good political 
judges were so excited that they failed to understand 
it. The friends of the Bank could not pass their 
bill over the veto, but they went into that Presi- 
dential canvass with strong hope of utterly defeat- 
ing the unscrupulous tyrant, as they called him, who 
was trying to make his own will the law of the land. 

Mr, Polk distinguished himself again in defending 
the veto ; he had no fear whatever concerning his 
own re-election, and went out into the general po- 
litical field in a manner which extended his already 
wide reputation as a stump speaker. 

There was almost as deep an interest and as fierce 
an excitement as in 1828, and the result was once 
more an astonishment. Andrew Jackson swept the 
country, receiving two hundred and nineteen elec- 
toral votes against forty-nine given for Henry Clay, 
eleven for John Floyd, and seven for William Wirt. 
Martin Van Buren was elected Vice-President, al- 
though his vote only reached one hundred and 
eighty-nine, and once more both Houses of Congress 
seemed to have strong administration majorities. 

In the House of Representatives there are two 
positions of vital importance for the management 



34 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

and control of current legislation. First in rank is 
that of the Speaker, upon whom devolves the ap- 
pointment of all standing committees, the decision 
of tie votes and of points of order, and whose power 
is often hardly less than that of the President him- 
self. Second, and generally in strict political alli- 
ance with the Speaker, although independent of him 
after being appointed, is the Chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Ways and Means, the leader of the 
House. This was the post of honor assigned to 
James K. Polk in the Congress of 1833, and it placed 
him before the nation as the President's chosen 
champion in the House of Representatives. There 
is no similar official position in the Senate, but the 
Jackson majority there regarded Senator Thomas 
H. Benton, of Missouri, as the President's responsi- 
ble agent. 

While the Presidential election had been carried to 
its conclusion, the people of South Carolina had cut 
out some very important work for General Jackson. 
Their State Legislature, on October 25th, called 
a State Convention to meet on November 19th. 
When the convention met it adopted the Nullifica- 
tion Ordinance, threatening secession, rebellion, and 
civil war. When Congress assembled on the first 
Monday of December, 1832, they received an elab- 
orate message upon national affairs, the reduction 
of the tariff, which the Nullifiers complained of, the 
public lands, the Bank, and other matters, and they 
also received another message, penned later than 
the first, and full of fiery Unionism. The President 
had also made preparations for suppressing Nullifi- 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 35 

cation forcibly, and issued a proclamation to that 
effect on December loth. Governor Hayne, of 
South Carolina, replied by a proclamation which 
was vigorous in words, but had no army to make it 
strong otherwise, while the President asked Con- 
gress for additional authority and resources. These 
were provided for him in what was known as the 
Force Bill, which passed the Senate on February 
20th, with only John Tyler voting against it, and 
which Mr. Polk easily carried through the House on 
the 27th. Long before that, however, the tariff re- 
duction recommendations, in President Jackson's 
first message, had been taken up, and had been so 
acted upon that the anti-tariff South had very little 
left to fight for. Mr. Polk was himself opposed to a 
protective tariff, and the State rights men were all 
with him. Mr. Clay and his followers obtained 
something in the nature of a compromise, but it v/as 
not even a revenue tariff, for under it the Treasury 
surplus melted away, and in a few years the Govern- 
ment was not receiving money enough to pay its 
running expenses. 

Mr. Polk acquitted himself well as Chairman of 
the Committee of Ways and Means, all the while 
strengthening his hold upon the unflinching main 
body of his party and maintaining very good rela- 
tions with its extreme Southern wing. With that 
faction he had one strong point of sympathy lead- 
ing to future co-operation, for they were all annex- 
ationists and so was he. During all this time Amer- 
ican emigrants had continued to move into Texas, 
with or without slaves, for the hardly-concealed pur- 



36 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

pose of wresting it from Mexican control. Among 
them were men of ability, combined with great per- 
sonal courage and prowess, and the imaginations of 
all American boys pictured them as heroes of 
romance. It is quite likely that no other set of 
heroes ever passed through a more romantic series 
of adventures. The Mexicans dreaded them, and 
hated them ferociously, and, while unwilling to face 
them except in overwhelming force, massacred them 
pitilessly whenever afterward, in the course of the 
war which resulted in Texan independence, the 
American adventurers were worsted. 

During the Summer of 1833 General Jackson made 
a sort of triumphal tour through some of the North- 
ern States, and returned prepared for a blow at the 
United States Bank. He was aware that another 
efTort was to be made to secure a charter, and he 
determined to cripple his enemy beforehand. The 
Bank held about nine millions of dollars of Govern- 
ment funds, and upon this deposit its commercial 
loans were largely based, for it was a Treasury sur- 
plus, to be drawn upon it, was expected, only as the 
well-understood needs of the nation might require. 
On September i8th the President read to his Cabi- 
net his reasons for deciding that no more Govern- 
ment funds should be deposited with the Bank of 
the United States, and why the money already there 
should be steadily withdrawn. He took the re- 
sponsibility of directing that deposits should thence- 
forth be made in other institutions, to be selected 
for the purpose, but Mr. Duane, Secretary of the 
Treasury, declared such an act contrary to law, and 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 37 

refused to issue the necessary order. He was re- 
moved, and Roger B. Taney, who was appointed in 
his place, proceeded to carry out the President's 
arbitrary pohcy. 

When Congress came together in December, 1833, 
the first business before it was a discussion of the 
removal of the deposits, for the Bank had at once 
curtailed its discounts ; there was commercial dis- 
tress in consequence, a panic threatened, and many 
who had voted for Jackson's re-election were loud 
in their denunciations of what to them seemed an 
uncalled-for act of severity. 

There was a majority in the Senate ready to con- 
demn the removal of the deposits, but it was not at 
first clear what course the several factions of it could 
be induced to agree upon. On December 26th, 
1833, Mr. Clay introduced a series of resolutions 
censuring the President, and declaring that he had 
"assumed upon himself authority and power not 
conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in dero- 
gation of both." 

Mr. Clay was supported by Mr. Calhoun, Mr. 
Tyler, and other strict Constructionists, but it was 
more than three months before he obtained the pas- 
sage of his resolutions. 

Meantime there had been a very different condi- 
tion of affairs in the House of Representatives, for 
there was a larger number of new men there who 
had been elected as a part of General Jackson's 
latest political victory. Mr. Polk was able to keep 
an Administration majority in good working order 
throughout the session. There were stormy de- 



38 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

bates, and the President's conduct was assailed as 
bitterly as in the Senate. There, however, there 
was no man, admitting the ability of Colonel Ben- 
ton, who was at all able to cope with such a trio as 
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun, 
while in the House the enemies of the President had 
no leader who could be called the superior of James 
K. Polk. 

The latter, as Chairman of the Committee of 
Ways and Means, after a while reported a series of 
resolutions fully sustaining the course of the Presi- 
dent. He advocated them with remarkable skill, 
and obtained a vote upon them K\n\\ 4th, 1834. 
The first was, in substance : ''Resolved, That the 
Bank of the United States ought not to be re-char- 
tered ;" and it received a majority of fifty-two. 
The second resolution said that the deposits ought 
not to be restored to the bank, and the anti-panic 
vote cut down Mr. Polk's majority to fifteen. The 
third approved of continuing national deposits in 
State banking institutions, and received a majority 
of only twelve. The fourth resolution ordering an 
investigation of the affairs of the Bank, obtained a 
majority of one hundred and thirty-three, and Presi- 
dent Jackson's victory in the House of Representa- 
tives was complete. It had been won for him by 
Felix Grundy's law student, with whom he used 
formerly to chat sometimes when he rode into Nash- 
ville from the Hermitage. 

That was a great session of Congress for James 
K. Polk, but he had made himself almost too much 
the leader of his party, and he had excited jeal- 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 39 

ousies by his too rapid advancement. Moreover, 
he had vehemently declared himself against a 
United States Bank of any possible pattern and in 
favor of a tariff for revenue only. In the course of 
the session, June i8th, 1834, the Speaker of the 
House, Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, resigned, 
and Mr. Polk was the regular Democratic candidate 
for the post of honor so made vacant. He would 
have won it then but for the Judge White votes 
from Tennessee. These were given to their own 
best man, Mr. Bell, and when all the Whig votes 
were also given him, Mr. Bell was elected. It was 
a very long step toward breaking up the old Demo- 
cratic control of the President's own State. 

Mr. Polk remained the leader of his party upon 
the floor of the House, and the Whig victory was 
barren enough. All its fruits were apparently lost 
when, in December, 1835, the Twenty-fourth Con- 
gress assembled and at once placed James K. Polk 
in the Speaker's chair, with a stout Jacksonian 
majority to sustain his rulings. 

Honors had come fast indeed to the compara- 
tively youthful member from Tennessee. So far as 
political power attaches to influence upon the course 
of legislation, he had become officially the second 
man in the nation. The first, with a wide interval 
between him and Mr. Polk, was Andrew Jackson, 
and the unofficial power, purely representative and 
personal, was Henry Clay. 

The Andrew Jackson Administration seemed at 
last to have triumphed over all its adversaries, and 
a sort of party celebration was in order. January 



40 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

8th, 1835, the anniversary of the battle of New 
Orleans, was selected for the occasion, and a grand 
public banquet was given to General Jackson, rather 
than to the President, in the city of Washington. 
It was presided over by Colonel Benton, his repre- 
sentative in the Senate, and a distinguished array 
of Vice-Presidents was headed by the name of his 
lieutenant in the House, James K. Polk. It was 
not such a dinner as he had cooked for his father 
and other hungry hunters, years before, among the 
primeval forests of Tennessee. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Van Bur en Campaign — Texan Independence — 
The Anti-Slavery Movement — The Panic of iZ'^'j 
— Mr. Polk thanked by the House — Close of his 
Career in Congress. 

President Jackson and all that part of the 
Democratic Party which obeyed him without asking 
too many questions began to make arrangements, 
early in the year 1835, for the nomination of Martin 
Van Buren to succeed the hero of New Orleans. 
There could be no question but that he had a first 
claim upon the support of the organization he had 
done so much to create, and whose difficult cam- 
paign affairs he had handled with such unsurpassed 
dexterity. There were important Democratic ele- 
ments, however, especially at the South, which 
were opposed to Mr. Van Buren. The State rights 
men led by Calhoun and Tyler were his bitter 
enemies, and there were leading Democrats in the 
Southwest who declared their determination to re- 
pudiate him. If time were to be given for this dis- 
affection to make itself felt, a Democratic National 
Convention might deem it wise to nominate some 
other man. The convention was therefore sum- 
moned a full year in advance, and met on May loth,- 
1835. There were six hundred delegates, and they 
voted unanimously for Mr. Van Buren. They were 



42 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

much less than unanimous in nominating Richard 
M. Johnson for Vice-President. 

Mr. Polk took no part in the Baltimore Conven- 
tion. He afterward declared his hearty assent to 
the action of his chief and party, but they were 
about to discover that even the voters of Tennessee 
had minds of their own. 

Through the remainder of that year and the 
Winter Congressional session of 1835-36, the gen- 
eral course of legislation went on in the settled line 
of the policy of the Administration, and Speaker 
Polk was sustained by good majorities in the House ; 
but there was one notable occasion when the Presi- 
dent owed his best support to one of his bitterest 
enemies. 

The French Government owed the United States 
five millions of dollars of indemnity money, under a 
treaty concluded in 1831. Repeated and continued 
neglect to pay on the French side, and character- 
istically-firm remonstrances on the part of President 
Jackson, at last brought the relations between the 
two nations to such a pass that war seemed inevi- 
table. The American Minister, Mr. Livingston, re- 
ceived his passports and came home, and the Presi- 
dent sent a message to Congress announcing that 
France was preparing a fleet for American waters, 
and urging " large and speedy preparations for the 
increase of the navy and the completion of our 
coast defences." 

The Senate did not waver seriously, but the 
House of Representatives seemed for a moment to 
lose its nerve. It was not ready for war, and the 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 43 

Administration majority was crumbling in all direc- 
tions, when old John Quincy Adams came to Mr. 
Polk's assistance in a defence of the President so 
eloquent, so patriotic, so warlike, that he rallied 
men of all parties in a solid vote sustaining the 
Administration. It was a grand thing for him to 
do, since he represented upon that floor the grow- 
ing opposition to nearly all the measures and policy 
to which the President and the Speaker were com- 
mitted. He was an anti-slavery man ; for that 
avowed reason opposed to the annexation of Texas, 
vigilantly watching and vehemently denouncing 
every step which the Democratic Party was taking 
in that direction. It professed not to have yet 
taken any, as a party, but its annexation wing had 
aided the Texas revolutionists materially. The lat- 
ter had progressed well. Their declared indepen- 
dence had been recognized by European powers, and 
the resolution for its recognition by the United 
States had been no party measure. Henry Clay 
himself, on behalf of the Committee on Foreign 
Relations, had introduced it in the Senate in June, 
1836, with an expression of prudent doubt whether 
the right time for it had arrived. 

The Presidential campaign of 1836 fully justified 
the precaution taken by Mr. Van Buren's friends in 
beginning it early. There was an independent 
Democratic ticket in the field, after all, for Judge 
White refused to be bound by the action of the con- 
vention, and John Tyler joined him with a strong 
following of strict Construction, State rights men. 
Mr. Polk went home to Tennessee and made a ral- 



44 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

lant fight to save the State, but there had been a 
widespread and unlooked-for rebellion. His efforts 
were all in vain, and the best he could do was to 
save his own seat in Congress. The Duck River 
pioneers stood by him, but the State of Tennessee 
went for White and Tyler. So did Georgia, while 
Maryland and South Carolina dropped Judge White 
and voted, the former for Harrison and the latter 
for Willie P. Mangum. Colonel Johnson failed of 
an election by the people, and afterward received 
one from the Senate. Mr. Van Buren obtained one 
hundred and seventy votes, and was elected ; but 
Harrison and Granger had seventy-three, a notable 
increase, and Daniel Webster received fourteen. 
The twenty-six votes of Judge White, and the eleven 
of Mr. Mangum, however, were nearly all given by 
men who could be relied upon as sincere Democrats 
in any contest involving the protection of slavery, 
territorial extension generally, or the annexation of 
Texas in particular. 

Mr. Polk returned to his duties as Speaker of the 
House, and the stormy administration of Andrew 
Jackson drew on toward its close. The Winter ses- 
sion of 1836-37 was made memorable in the history 
of American politics by the action of the House in 
adopting what was afterward known as ' * the gag 
rule." It was a vain attempt to check an annoying 
stream of petitions, generally presented by John 
Quincy Adams, relating to the abolition of slavery. 
On January i8th a resolution was adopted, by a 
vote of one hundred and thirty-nine to sixty-nine, 
" that all petitions relating to slavery, without being 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 45 

printed or referred, shall be laid on the table, and 
no action shall be had thereon." A disagreeable 
subject was to be avoided by a denial of the right 
of petition, and a great impetus was at once given 
to the anti-slavery movement. The Abolition soci- 
eties were two thousand in number before the close 
of 1838, and their rejected petitions to Congress 
bore three hundred thousand names. The po- 
sition of Mr. Polk and the Southern wing of the 
Democratic Party, which he represented at least 
as perfectly as did any other m.an, had received 
a very distinct and peculiarly unpopular defini- 
tion. 

Mr. Van Buren was inaugurated on March 4th, 
1837, and the Texas question was almost immedi- 
ately brought before him. He was called upon by 
Mr. Memtican Hunt, envoy of Texas to the United 
States, with a proposal for annexation, although it 
was as yet by no means certain that the Gulf Re- 
public, as its friends called it, would succeed in es- 
tablishing its independence. Mr. Van Buren de- 
clined taking any favorable action, on the declared 
ground that a state of war existed between Texas 
and Mexico, a power with which the United States 
were at peace, and that the proposal was really that 
the United States should assume and carry on the 
war. A large majority in Congress was known to 
be in perfect accord with him, and the friends of 
annexation were forced to bide their time. 

The people of the United States had more than 
enough to occupy their minds at home during the 
year 1837. There had been financial disturbances 



46 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

in Europe during 1836, and their effect began to be 
felt in this country during the Autumn and Winter. 
With the Spring began what has ever since been 
known as the Panic of 1837. From its outset the 
commercial classes charged it upon the asserted 
errors of Andrew Jackson^ Martin Van Buren, and 
the other leaders of the Democratic Party. On 
May 3d a committee of New York merchants and 
bankers waited upon the President and presented 
their indictment in due form. They said, among 
other severe things: "The error of our rulers has 
produced a wider destruction than the pestilence 
which depopulated our streets or the conflagration 
which laid them in ashes." 

Mr. Van Buren responded with a very just refusal 
to accept such a verdict, but it was evident that if 
the voting masses should accept it there were dark 
clouds in the horizon of the Democratic Party. He 
had no power to stay the panic, and was wise in not 
making any hysterical attempt. One week later 
the banks of New York suspended payment, and all 
other banks rapidly followed their example. The 
Treasury itself was in trouble, and the President sum- 
moned a special session of Congress to provide means 
for meeting Government expenses. Upon the organ- 
ization of the House of Representatives, Septem- 
ber 4th, 1837, it was discovered that the Adminis- 
tration majority had almost melted away, for James 
K. Polk was chosen Speaker by a narrow margin of 
only three votes. He was chosen, nevertheless, 
and he performed his duty so well, in a time of un- 
common perplexity, that when the session closed 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 47 

men of all factions joined in giving him a unan- 
imous vote of thanks. 

Personally, he had been at all times popular, and 
his social position, admirably sustained by Mrs. 
Polk, had been an important element of strength 
during the arduous years of the Jackson Adminis- 
tration. 

The Winter session came, and with it a renewal 
of the arduous duties of a party leader in troublous 
times presiding over a body which was at times all 
but tumultuous. Even his political enemies ad- 
mitted that he made an admirable Speaker, consid- 
ering the well-known strength of his partisanship. 
The session was prolonged, and one of its most ex- 
citing debates did not come until Summer. It con- 
tinued from June i6th till July 7th, and was occa- 
sioned by a report of the House Committee on For- 
eign Affairs with reference to the proposed annexa- 
tion of Texas. Every feature of the history of 
Texas and every probable consequence of annex- 
ation were exhaustively discussed, including the 
declaration of President Monroe that " our right to 
Texas is as good as our right to New Orleans." 
That had been uttered even while giving up all for 
the Florida treaty, and John Quincy Adams was 
given abundant opportunity to defend his share in 
the alleged surrender of an empire. He did so, 
with the addition of unstinted vituperation of an 
attempt to steal back again property once fairly 
parted with, whether profitably or not, and he left 
little to be said concerning the enormity of human 
slavery and of the denial of the right of petition. 



48 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

The results of the debate convinced the annex- 
ationists that the country was not yet ready for 
war with Mexico, and that Mr. Adams was by 
no means alone in his hostility to the extension of 
slavery. 

Changes in Congress and the results of the au- 
tumnal elections of 1838 served notice upon the 
leaders of all factions that a new political era was at 
hand. The Whig Party was known to be steadily 
absorbing the floating vote, and such men as John 
Tyler, of Virginia, were openly declaring their pur- 
pose of acting with it rather than permit Martin 
Van Buren to be again elected President. Mr. 
Tyler was already in the Virginia Legislature as a 
Whig when Congress came together in December, 
and the Massachusetts voters who had insisted upon 
throwing away their electors upon Daniel Webster 
in 1836 were now ready to abide by the decision 
of a regular Whig National Convention. 

The Winter session of 1838-39 was full of impor- 
tant legislation, and Mr. Polk sustained his well- 
earned reputation. It was the fifth session over 
which he had presided. He had decided not to be 
a candidate for another term in Congress, and when 
the day of adjournment came it was agreed upon all 
sides that a sort of farewell address would be emi- 
nently appropriate. Not yet forty years of age, Mr. 
Polk was one of the oldest members of the House 
as to consecutive service, and his admitted leader- 
ship had begun at an early day. Political enemies 
were willing to listen almost as personal friends. 
The Speaker's address was a well-drawn retrospect 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 49 

of the stirring scenes he had witnessed in that legis- 
lative chamber, joined with a most impressive and 
patriotic forecast of the national future. It was 
printed, was widely read, and it added materially to 
his reputation as an orator and statesman. 



i/t 



CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Polk Governor of Tennessee — Rise of the Whig 
Party — President Harrison — Defeat of Mr, Polk 
for Governor — Tyler s Administration — James K. 
Polk elected President of the Utiited States. 

James K. Polk had especial reasons for not de- 
siring another election to the House of Representa- 
tives. There were good grounds for doubting the 
election of a Democratic Speaker by the next Con- 
gress, and his return would have been to a place 
among other men upon the floor. So far as mere 
personal ambition could be gratified by legislative 
honors, he had received them. He had served long 
and laboriously, and no man could say that he had 
not been utterly faithful to his avowed political 
principles. He had served his party well, and, as 
he understood the bearing of legislative measures, 
he had served the country well. He had been in 
Congress long enough, and now there was a neces- 
sity for a vigorous effort to save the State of Ten- 
nessee from falling altogether into the hands of the 
Whigs. It contained no Democrat more popular 
than James K. Polk, nor one better able to call out 
the utmost strength of the old Jackson party. He 
had therefore accepted in advance a nomination for 
Governor of the State, and went home to enter 
upon a toilsome and doubtful canvass. 




PORTRAIT OF JAME3 KNOX POI^K. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 51 

There were many things which worked against a 
man who was loaded with all the memories of the 
Jackson-Van Buren Administration, with the panic 
of 1837, with the enmity of the Judge White inter- 
est, and with a proposed Mexican war ; but Mr. 
Polk faced all his adversaries manfully, addressing 
large gatherings of voters in all parts of the State, 
and once more proving himself a popular orator of 
extraordinary ability. He was elected, and it was 
called a triumph. So it was, considering how 
hardly it had been won, but a very moderate ma- 
jority of twenty-five hundred over his competitor 
gave warning that the change in the political senti- 
ment of Tennessee had been tremendous. 

There was no doubt but that Mr. Polk would 
make an excellent Governor. He did so, and while 
in discharge of the duties of his office he enjoyed 
much more of home life than had been possible 
during his exciting years at Washington. 

The Whig tide was swelling fast, and whatever 
President Van Buren may have been willing to do 
for the cause of annexation, the necessary power 
for effective action was not in his hands during the 
last year of his term of office. The Democratic 
Party lost control of the House of Representatives, 
losing it in a very remarkable manner. When the 
Twenty-sixth Congress met, on December 2d, 1839, 
the Clerk of the House of Representatives began to 
call the roll. When he reached the State of New 
Jersey he said that five seats of the members from 
that State were contested, and that, as he had no 
authority to decide the question involved, he would 



52 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

pass over their names, proceed with the call, and 
leave the case for the action of the House when 
organized. That would have left a Democratic ma- 
jority on the roll, with power to elect their own 
Speaker, and there was a tumult at once. During 
four days an excited, disorderly debate continued, 
until at last old John Quincy Adams took the mat- 
ter in hand and proceeded to organize the House 
without reference to the technical objections of the 
Clerk. Eleven days more of strife and turmoil fol- 
lowed, with Mr. Adams in the chair, but at the end 
the Whigs succeeded in electing their candidate for 
Speaker, Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia. 
That gave them the control of all the standing com- 
mittees, and postponed, for the time being, every 
project of the annexationists. 

All over the land preparations were making for 
the Presidential campaign of 1840. Mr. Van Buren 
believed himself entitled to a second term, and his 
party finally consented, with much murmuring, to 
give him a nomination. Some time before the 
meeting of the Democratic National Convention the 
Legislature of Tennessee adopted a resolution 
recommending James K. Polk as a candidate for 
Vice-President, but the managers of Mr. Van 
Buren's canvass deemed it wiser to renominate Col- 
onel Johnson. Mr. Polk made no apparent effort 
on his own behalf. He proposed to act with his 
party and do his best, but there was no enthusiasm 
at the South, among Texas annexationists particu- 
larly, for Mr. Van Buren, a man who had, as they 
declared, turned a cold shoulder to the entire proj- 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 53 

ect for territorial extension. The result was very 
much what might have been expected from a chilled 
and lifeless beginning. 

The Whigs, on the other hand, encouraged by- 
successes already won in nearly all of the States and 
in Congress, went into the battle with great energy. 
Before their National Convention assembled they 
had a considerable number of candidates, and sev- 
eral names were actually balloted for in the conven- 
tion ; but they agreed heartily in naming General 
William Henry Harrison, as sound a Whig as Henry 
Clay, in favor of a United States Bank and of a 
protective tariff, and opposed to the annexation of 
Texas and a war with Mexico. They also, for sup- 
posed political reasons, nominated for Vice-President 
John Tyler, of Virginia, an old State rights Demo- 
crat, opposed to a protective tariff, doubtful on the 
bank question, and at heart in favor of an extension 
of territory, and of slavery with it. Without any 
knowledge or purpose on their part, or on that of 
Mr. Polk, they were providing for him a President 
of the United States who would serve as his own 
stepping-stone to the same high office. 

The Democratic Party machinery worked as well 
as ever, for it was in the hands of its accustomed 
able managers. There was apparently as much of 
stump speaking and of all other forms of partisan 
activity as ever, but all that was done upon that 
side lacked the fire and force with which the Whigs 
fought their Log Cabin Campaign, for " Tippecanoe 
and Tyler too." 

The victory was gained by the enthusiasm and 



54 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

lost by the coldness. Harrison and Tyler were 
elected by a somewhat narrow majority as to num- 
bers, but it gave them two hundred and thirty-four 
electoral votes against only sixty, and with these 
good working majorities in both Houses of Con- 
gress. 

The Democratic Party had received a staggering 
blow, and its old leaders for a time almost lost 
heart. They did not know what was in store for 
them, and were so slow to realize it when it came 
that their party organs continued to abuse John 
Tyler long after he severed his temporary connec- 
tion with the Whigs and was preparing for the 
Democracy a new victory and a new lease of power. 

The rank and file of the party were also dispirited, 
and when, in 1841, General Harrison was inaugu- 
rated President of the United States, with a full 
Cabinet of Whig statesmen, a Whig Congress, and 
with two-thirds of the States under Whig control, 
it looked as if the political dream of Henry Clay 
rather than of James K. Polk had been finally 
realized. 

Mr. Polk was now a private citizen. Even his 
popularity and eloquence had not prevented him 
from being swept away in defeat by the Whig wave 
of 1840. It had carried Tennessee by a majority of 
twelve thousand. He returned to his law practice, 
and speedily found it yielding him a better income 
than any he had ever enjoyed from his official posi- 
tions and from the occasional law fees which he could 
earn in the intervals of public duties. He had be- 
come the owner of the former residence of Felix 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 55 

Grundy, a fine mansion with extensive grounds, in 
the aristocratic quarter of Nashville, on what was 
known as Grundy's Hill, and he made it, with Mrs. 
Polk's assistance, a sort of social centre for all who 
were in any manner entitled to its liberal hospital- 
ities. There was a wide difference, however, be- 
tween the invitations extended from such a mansion 
and the unstinted welcome accorded to all who 
chose to visit the Hermitage. It was even asserted, 
detrimentally, that Mr. Polk had become a very 
aristocratic man to call himself a Democrat. The 
charge had its element of truth, and it might have 
been added that the social level of the Jackson and 
Polk families had never been the same, in Ireland 
or in America. Thomas and Ezekiel Polk had been 
leading men in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 
when poor Widow Jackson, down in the Waxhaws, 
was working as a housekeeper that she might be 
able to feed and clothe her infant son. Samuel 
Polk, plain planter though he was, had been able to 
send his brilliant boy to the academy and the uni- 
versity, and to support him while studying law. 
More than that, it may be, lay in the fact that 
James K. Polk had wedded wealth and education 
and refinement, instead of a lady who, whatever her 
goodness of heart, liked nothing better of an even- 
ing than to sit on the opposite side of the fireplace 
and smoke a corn-cob pipe like that of her husband. 
Startling news came to the ex-Speaker of the 
House in April, 1841. William Henry Harrison 
was dead, and John Tyler was President of the 
United States. 



56 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

Mr. Polk knew Mr. Tyler, and must have been as 
well aware as was anybody else that there had been 
no Henry Clay Whiggism in him. He would not 
have expressed himself, however, in any such terms 
as were at once employed by hundreds of the men 
who had toiled and voted to make Mr. Tyler Vice- 
President. Old John Quincy Adams had a faculty 
for saying bitter things in the bitterest way. A 
part of what he now had to say was as follows : 

"Tyler is a political sectarian, of the slave-driving, Virginia- 
Jeffersonian school ; principled against all improvement ; with all 
the interests and passions and vices of slavery rooted in his moral 
and political constitution. . . . Slavery, intemperance, land-job- 
bing, bankruptcy, and sundry controversies with Great Britain, con- 
stitute the materials for the history of John Tyler's Administra- 
tion." 

That was the anti-slavery view, and before long 
Whigs of all sorts were equalling Mr. Adams in the 
fierceness of their vituperation. On the other hand, 
statesmen like James K. Polk, equally well entitled 
to have decided opinions upon moral and political 
questions, including slavery itself, were able to at 
once express a hope of being delivered somewhat 
from the current excesses of Whig Party proscrip- 
tion, and even that Whig narrowness would not now 
be able to present so strong a barrier to that bene- 
ficial expansion of the great Republic which Mr. 
Adams had himself formerly advocated. 

Mr. Polk was in due time to be as bitterly assailed 
as was Mr. Tyler, though for different reasons, and 
his opponents also were to put out of sight the facts 
of his political career, his public record, his private 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 57 

integrity, as well as the truth that he was officially- 
obeying the known will of the majority of the 
people. 

Before the end of the Summer of 1841, Mr. Tyler 
was in open variance with the leaders of the Whig 
Party, but for a season afterward they seemed even 
to increase their political ascendency in many States. 
One of these was Tennessee, for the interest there 
which had organized at first under Judge White and 
was afterward led by Mr. Bell remained solidly 
Whig. 

Mr. Polk became more and more earnest in his 
advocacy of Texan annexation as time went on. 
Reports from Texas grew more and more favorable 
at the same time, and Mexico was distracted by 
internal commotions which consumed her strength. 
All her factions, however, seemed to be agreed upon 
one point, for each in turn avowed an unalterable 
determination to retain at least a nominal owner- 
ship of the revolted province. When the dictator, 
Santa Anna, in 1836, had been defeated and made 
a prisoner at San Jacinto, with a fair prospect of 
being shot for his many crimes, he had given a com- 
pulsory assent to Texan independence, but had had 
no idea of being bound afterward by his action 
while under duress, and his countrymen had no 
thought, then or afterward, of keeping his contract 
for him. 

Mr. Polk made a great effort in 1843 to break 
the power of the Whig Party in Tennessee. He 
was again nominated for Governor, and made a 
thorough personal canvass of the State. There 



58 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

were signs of a reaction in his favor, for he reduced 
the Whig majority to four thousand ; but he was 
defeated, and there were opponents who assured 
him that the remainder of his life would probably 
be devoted to the practice of law. 

During all this time the administration of Mr. 
Tyler had not only become entirely Democratic, 
with John C. Calhoun, at last, as Secretary of State, 
to indicate the kind and intensity of its Democracy, 
but it had taken up the subject of annexation in a 
manner which made it the most prominent of all the 
issues between the two great parties. 

There were even Democrats whom as yet it was 
necessary to persuade that the annexation of Texas 
did not mean a war with Mexico, and the Whig 
Party in Congress was able to prevent definite 
action, session after session, through a series of de- 
bates which made the entire country familiar with 
every phase of the subject. The newspaper press 
kept even pace with the debates in Congress, and 
whole bound volumes of arguments and statistics 
were printed. Everywhere the annexation advo- 
cates at the North were compelled to meet the in- 
creasing aggressiveness of anti-slavery men, while 
among the great mass who were comparatively in- 
different to the slavery question a hungry greed was 
awakened for possessing the almost empty South- 
western wastes which seemed likely to remain use- 
less forever under their Mexican ownership. 

The year 1844 opened at last, and both parties 
prepared for an appeal to the people. Mr. Van 
Buren claimed that he had been defeated in 1840 by 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 59 

sectional factions and by a depressed condition of 
the party now no longer existing. There were 
many who deemed him entitled to another trial, and 
more who believed him able to draw out a larger 
Northern vote than could be expected for another 
candidate. He was willing to pacify the annexa- 
tionists, and wrote a letter declaring himself in favor 
of receiving Texas if it could be done without pay- 
ing for it by a war with Mexico. That was by no 
means enough, however, and they had other reasons 
for doubts as to the course he might take in an 
emergency which they knew to be already prepared 
for the next President of the United States if a 
Democrat should be elected. Texas was already 
knocking for admission, bringing her war with her 
in the shape of a disputed boundary. Her national 
independence had already been formally acknowl- 
edged by the United States and by several European 
powers, but neither they nor Texas herself were yet 
able to say whether the southern line of the new 
State would finally be found at the Nueces River or 
at the Rio Grande, or what might be its western 
border. 

The extreme Southern wing of the Democratic 
Party, through John C. Calhoun, loudly declared 
that Mr. Van Buren should not, under any circum- 
stances, become the candidate of the Democratic 
Party. Mr. Tyler's friends emphasized the declar- 
ation by giving him, temporarily, an independent 
nomination, of which no more was heard after the 
one question dearest to them all was placed in safer 
keeping than that of Martin Van Buren. Neverthe- 



6o JAMES KNOX POLK. 

less, when the Democratic National Convention met 
in Baltimore, May 27th, 1844, it was found that a 
majority of the party delegates had come there to 
nominate Mr. Van Buren. 

There was a rule in existence, of which no use 
had ever yet been made, requiring a two-thirds 
vote of any such convention in order to complete a 
nomination. Up to that day there had been re- 
markable unanimity, but now there was a strong 
minority, somewhat larger than a third, which pro- 
posed to hold out forever rather than accept Mr. 
Van Buren. The majority was powerless, and for a 
time there seemed to be even peril of a ruinous 
division ; but the warmest supporters of the New 
York statesman were not prepared to give the elec- 
tion at once into the hands of Henry Clay. 

The Whig National Convention had been also 
held in Baltimore on May ist. It had declared 
against annexation and a war with Mexico, had 
nominated Henry Clay for President and Theodore 
Frelinghuysen for Vice-President, and had gone 
home rejoicing. There was a fallacious belief 
among the Whig delegates that John Tyler was to 
split the Democratic vote, and a faith, much better 
grounded, in the personal popularity of their candi- 
date, and in the dislike for war entertained by a 
majority of the American people. 

The fact that Henry Clay had been nominated, 
with a certainty of being elected if there should be 
any disagreement among themselves, solidified the 
Democratic Convention. It was determined to 
drop Mr. Van Buren and find a man, if they could, 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 6i 

against whom the North could bring no special ob- 
jection, and whose name would receive the approval 
of the South. 

Some time previous to the meeting of the con- 
vention much mention had been made of James K. 
Polk in connection with the party nomination for 
Vice-President. He had been invited to define his 
position upon some of the questions of the day, 
especially upon annexation. As to some others, his 
public record was amply sufificient. In reply he had 
said : 

"I have no hesitation in declaring that I am in favor of the 
immediate re-annexation of Texas to the territory and government 
of the United States. I entertain no doubts as to the power or ex- 
pediency of the re-annexation. The proof is fair and satisfactory, 
to my own mind, that Texas once constituted a part of the territory 
of the United States, the title to which I regard to have been as 
indisputable as that to any portion of our territory." 

He added a detailed historical argument in de- 
fence of his position, and it was evident that he, at 
least, could be depended upon to take and hold 
whatever land he believed to have been paid for by 
President Jefferson when Napoleon sold the Louisi- 
ana territory. 

In the first ballot of the Democratic Convention 
the name of Mr, Polk did not appear. He had not 
yet been thought of for President. As the ballot- 
ings proceeded, however, and as the delegates from 
different sections discussed the list of statesmen 
from which they were to make their choice, they 
found themselves compelled to put aside man after 
man as unavailable. Objections made were of sev- 



62 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

eral kinds, but Southern and Northern men alike 
agreed that it would be useless to put before the 
people any nominee who had ever been mixed up 
with State rights or Nullification, or of whose devo- 
tion to the Union there could be any question. On 
the other hand, John C. Calhoun himself cared very 
little now for the fact that Mr. Polk long years ago 
had carried the Force Bill through the House for 
Andrew Jackson. 

After several ballots the choice of the convention 
settled itself unanimously upon James K. Polk, and 
even Martin Van Buren accepted, apparently but 
not really, the action of his party. He waited four 
years longer before he took a somewhat grotesque 
revenge upon the two-thirds rule and the Texas 
annexationists. 

Mr. George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, received 
the nomination for Vice-President, a Texas annexa- 
tion platform was agreed upon, and the convention 
adjourned. 

The delegates had acted with wisdom and moder- 
ation under somewhat trying circumstances, but 
they had still a sure defeat before them if it had not 
been for one small body of exceedingly conscientious 
men in several of the Northern States where the 
Whig majorities were narrow. The extreme Aboli- 
tionists of the North had views of their own as to 
the right way of reaching a political end, and they 
had the courage of their convictions. Mr. Polk was 
an open advocate of the extension of the area of 
slavery, and of course they could not vote for him. 
The Whig Party was opposed to slavery extension. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 63 

but then it had nominated Henry Clay, a slave- 
holder, and the Abolitionists decided that it was 
best to nominate Mr. James G. Birney and Thomas 
Morris, and draw off in that way a sufficient number 
of anti-slavery Whig votes to elect Mr. Polk, annex 
Texas as a slave State, and have a war with Mexico. 
They succeeded in giving Mr. Birney sixty-two 
thousand two hundred and sixty-three votes, and 
the Democratic Party was deeply indebted to them, 
for it would otherwise have been many thousands in 
the minority. As it was, Mr. Polk received one 
hundred and seventy electoral votes, and Mr. Clay 
one hundred and five. Tennessee went for Clay, 
but Maury County gave Mr. Polk seven hundred 
majority. One other feature of the election, how- 
ever, prevented it from being either a rout for the 
Whigs or a secure victory for the Democrats. The 
Congressional Whig nominations had largely escaped 
the effect of the Birney movement, and the new 
Administration majority there and in the Senate 
promised to be anything but compact and trust- 
worthy 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mexican Treaties and Texan Independence^James 
Knox Polk, President of the United States — The 
Oregon Question — Position of Parties — General 
Taylor s Army at Corpus Christi. 

So far as the Presidential election could be re- 
garded as an expression of the popular will upon 
the subject, the people of the United States had 
decided in favor of annexing Texas, whatever might 
be the consequences of annexation. Prior to the 
rendering of that decision, the Whigs had been 
strong enough, both in House and Senate, to de- 
feat any measure of even a preparatory nature. On 
April 1 2th, 1844, Mr. Calhoun, as Secretary of 
State, had signed a treaty of annexation, and it was 
laid before the Senate by Mr. Tyler. After a pro- 
longed debate it received only fifteen votes, June 
8t' , and was rejected. The temper of Congress was 
again tested by offering on December 19th, 1844, a 
joint resolution providing for annexation. It was 
vigorously opposed, but was adopted on the 25th of 
the month. A treaty of annexation was soon pre- 
sented for action, and it was evident that the power 
of the opposition had been broken. There were 
delays, of course, but on March ist, 1845, the treaty 
was approved, and on the next day it was signed by 
President Tyler. He had in this manner made all 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 65 

things ready for the hands of his successor, and he 
at once despatched a messenger to Texas to an- 
nounce the action of the Government of the United 
States and call for corresponding legislation on the 
part of Texas. 

The situation was singularly complicated. Great 
Britain herself was believed to have designs upon 
Texas, and much use had been made of that idea in 
the Presidential campaign, as well as in the de- 
spatches of the Secretary of State to the American 
Minister to France. The Mexican Government, as 
early as August 23d, 1843, had officially notified the 
Government of the United States, in view of the 
current discussion of the subject by the American 
press, that the passage by Congress of an act of 
annexation would be regarded by Mexico as equiva- 
lent to a declaration of war. This notification was 
formally repeated in November, 1843, and again on 
May 31st, 1844. On June 12th, 1844, President 
Santa Anna, while serving a similar notice upon the 
United States, had made a requisition upon the 
Mexican Congress for thirty thousand men and four 
millions of dollars for the prosecution of the war he 
threatened. 

In the closing hours of Mr. Tyler's administra- 
tion, while the treaty of annexation was before Con- 
gress, France and England were busily promoting 
a treaty of peace between Texas and Mexico. The 
treaty failed to determine a boundary line while 
containing an acknowledgment of Texan indepen- 
dence, but it also contained an express covenant that 
Texas should not be annexed to any other power. 



66 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

France had defeated England, if that power really 
wanted Texas, and the two together, with Mexico, 
seemed to have defeated the United States, for the 
treaty was duly signed by the Texan representative, 
on March 29th, 1845, ^'^d was sent home for ratifica- 
tion. Before it was signed, however, and long be- 
fore it could cross the Atlantic, there had been im- 
portant changes in the situation. 

On March 4th, 1845, James Knox Polk was in- 
augurated President of the United States, and his 
address left unsaid nothing that might have been 
wished for by the party which had elected him. 

The position of parties in Congress was such that 
his influence over the course of general legislation 
threatened to be somewhat limited, but the elec- 
toral votes which made him President had accepted 
the responsibility and consequences of annexation, 
and he was sure of support in such measures as he 
might take for completing the work begun under 
Mr. Tyler. Whatever he might do would be under 
the daily inspection of an ably led, compact, and 
powerful political opposition, ready to make the 
most of every semblance of a blunder, and it was 
evident that without skilful management his admin- 
istration was likely to meet with disasters. 

The Cabinet selected by Mr. Polk was peculiarly 
strong. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, became 
Secretary of State ; Robert J. Walker, of Missis- 
sippi, Secretary of the Treasury ; William L. Marcy, 
of New York, Secretary of War ; George Bancroft, 
of Massachusetts, Secretary of the Navy ; Cave 
Johnson, of Tennessee, Postmaster-General, and 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 67 

John Y. Mason, of Virginia, Attorney-General. 
They were able men, in full accord with the aggres- 
sive policy which Mr. Polk's administration must 
undertake, and the country waited anxiously for 
the news of the next step. 

There was something like suspense for a while, 
although there were no intentional delays anywhere. 
The Mexican Minister, General Almonte, on March 
6th entered his formal protest against the act of 
annexation, declaring that it proposed to sever 
from his country an integral part of her territory. 
At the same time he demanded his passports, in 
token of the cessation of diplomatic and friendly 
relations between the two republics. On April 2d 
the American Minister to Mexico was formally cut 
off from all diplomatic intercourse, and, on June 4th, 
1845, the President of the Mexican Republic, Gen- 
eral Herrera, issued a proclamation denouncing the 
act of annexation and calling upon his fellow-citizens 
to rally in defence of their national domain. He also 
began to gather armed forces upon the Rio Grande. 

So far as troops were concerned. President Tyler 
had anticipated the Mexicans. Early in 1844 he 
had begun to concentrate the small force at his dis- 
posal at a point as near as might be to the Texas 
border. The Third and Fourth Infantry and the 
Second Dragoons were camped, in May, 1845, only 
about twenty-five miles from the Sabine River. 

When that force finally broke camp and moved it 
went into Texas by way of New Orleans and the 
Gulf, and among its very younger officers was a 
second lieutenant named Ulysses S. Grant. 



68 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

The routine work of Government went on in all 
the departments during the remainder of the year 
1845, but the War Department and the Navy De- 
partment were especially busy. So far as existing 
appropriations of money would go, every man and 
every weapon and every ship was put in the best 
condition for use, while the officers, from General 
Winfield Scott, Commander-in-Chief, down to such 
young fellows as Captain Robert E, Lee and Lieu- 
tenant P. G. T. Beauregard and Lieutenant George 
B. McClellan, and others like them, brushed up 
their Spanish and their geography, and planned 
campaigns in Mexico as brilliant as that of Cortes. 

There was a very curious political difficulty an- 
noying the Democratic Party leaders from the be- 
ginning to the end of the war with Mexico. In the 
old days the regular army officers, successors of 
Washington's Continental Line, had been mostly 
Federalists, and now their successors in turn were 
Whigs, and any glory to be won would almost 
surely make some Whig general unduly and danger- 
ously popular. There were men who declared that 
the President had a manifest duty upon him to give 
the chief command to some officer less distinctly 
opposed to the war itself than was General Scott, 
and perhaps to one less arbitrarily determined to 
have his own way. Whatever were the General's 
faults, however, personal or political, the President 
believed, as did everybody else, that no other man 
in America could handle an army nearly as well, 
and it was a plain duty to leave him in charge. 

There were several formalities to be cared for 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 69 

before the United States could have a legal right to 
land troops in Texas or march them over the border. 
On June i8th, 1845, both Houses of the Texan 
Congress, after rejecting the French-English-Mexi- 
can treaty, unanimously adopted joint resolutions 
of final consent and agreement to the act of annex- 
ation, and summoning a convention of the people. 
The convention was chosen at once and adopted an 
act of ratification on July 4th. 

It was now time for the President of the United 
States and his army officers to do something more 
than to prepare and to watch, and all the people 
were in a state of suspense and excitement, while 
the anti-war men found abundant matter for con- 
tinuous attacks upon the Administration. 

There were civil commotions in Mexico, changes 
of rulers, collisions of factions, disorders every- 
where, which paralyzed her for the time and made 
the few soldiers she could maintain upon the Rio 
Grande of no immediate use beyond that of a sort 
of picket guard. The American settlers in Texas 
were comparatively at their ease, so far as Mexico 
was concerned. The Comanches and Lipans and 
other Indian tribes gave them tenfold greater annoy- 
ance than did the threats of the new Mexican ruler, 
Paredes, or the occasional scouting parties of lancers 
who now and then crossed the Rio Grande, dashed 
forward for a look at the Nueces, and then dashed 
back again. 

The Twenty-ninth Congress of the United States 
be gan its first session on December 1st, 18^ . The 
message laid before it from President Polk was of 



70 JAMES KNOX POLE. 

uncommon length, and dealt with affairs of the ut- 
most national importance. The conduct of Mexico 
in the non-payment of claims as provided for by 
existing treaties, and with reference to many in- 
juries inflicted upon American citizens, was set forth 
in strong language, and the subject of annexation 
received due attention. The tariff question was 
presented in a manner which led to the adoption by 
that Congress of the measures afterward known to 
American politics and commerce as "the tariff of 
1846," The public lands, an independent Treasury 
system, and other matters of interest, were discussed 
as by a man who had been made familiar with them 
through long years of service in Congress. Hardly 
second to the Mexican War question itself was that 
of the Oregon boundary between the United States 
and Great Britain, and current diplomatic negotia- 
tions required that this also should receive the 
prompt attention of Congress. Rarely in the his- 
tory of the country had an annual message con- 
tained more important matter or matter brought out 
in better shape for legislative action. 

When Mr. Polk had been nominated for President 
there had been some Whigs willing to air their 
ignorance of American politics by derisively asking, 
"Who is Polk?" This message seemed to be a 
sufficient answer, and there was more to come. 
They had unwisely underestimated a strong and 
experienced antagonist. The man who had been 
Andrew Jackson's lieutenant in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, who had long been Chairman of the 
Committee of Ways and Means, twice Speaker of 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 71 

the House, and once Governor of Tennessee, was 
not altogether an obscure individual. 

The first and most pressing demand for Congres- 
sional action was also presented in a separate mes- 
sage, setting forth the action of the Texas Congress 
and convention, and the hostile attitude of the 
Mexican Government, or, rather, successive govern- 
ments. In both Senate and House there were 
Whigs who had not yielded one hair's breadth of 
their opposition, and they made one more hopeless 
fight ; but there were also Whigs who declared 
that the act of annexation was now that of the 
nation and not of a party, and were ready to sus- 
tain Mr. Polk. On December i6th a joint resolu- 
tion formally admitting Texas as a State of the 
Union passed both Houses of Congress by a two- 
thirds vote. The great question now remaining 
unsettled seemed to be as to precisely what was 
Texas and how much Southwestern land, prairie, 
and forest had been admitted to the protection of 
the American flag. 

All men knew that the interior boundary line 
must be hunted up at some future day away back 
among the Comanches and the yet unexplored 
mountain ranges. No Frenchman or Spaniard or 
Mexican had ever seen it or made a map of it, but 
it was there, and could be found. 

Upon the Gulf of Mexico the case was somewhat 
different. The Texan Republic would have been 
at one time pretty well satisfied with a southern 
boundary at the Nueces River, declared by Mexi- 
can authorities to have been the southern boundary 



72 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

of the Mexican State of Texas. President Polk, 
however, and those who agreed with him, went back 
to the ancient claims of the French kings, and de- 
clared that the Texas admitted to the Union was 
the same which had been sold by Napoleon and 
lost again by the ill-advised Florida treaty of 1819. 
The region lying between the Rio Grande and the 
Nueces was therefore, at the present moment, old 
territory of the United States recently recovered, 
and an American army could lawfully be sent to 
take possession of it. The Whigs in Congress and 
all the Whig press of the country poured unstinted 
derision and condemnation upon the President's 
arguments and conclusions, but he sent orders to 
Whig generals and was obeyed, nevertheless. 

The most important of these orders had been 
issued to Colonel and Brevet-Brigadier-General 
Zachary Taylor, and directed him to gather an 
army of occupation at Corpus Christi, Texas, near 
the mouth of the Nueces River. Five regiments of 
infantry, one of cavalry, and four companies of 
light artillery, about three thousand men all told, 
made up the force with which he was to assert the 
old French claim, the rights ceded to Texas by 
Santa Anna, under pain of being shot if he refused, 
and the new title of the United States. 

General Taylor had landed all his men at Corpus 
Christi by the time — December, 1845— of the passage 
by Congress of the act by which Texas was admitted 
to the Union. Her annexation had been completed 
on July 4th, previous, however, and General Taylor 
could regard any Texas land as part of the United 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 73 

States. He had orders sent him now which did not 
permit him to remain at the mouth of the Nueces. 
No Mexican troops were Hkely to assail him there, 
for his presence did not seem to set up an armed 
claim to the disputed territory. He was therefore 
ordered to advance to the Rio Grande, about a hun- 
dred and fifty miles from Corpus Christi, and by the 
middle of March, 1846, he was encamped on the 
bank of that river opposite the Mexican town and 
fort of Matamoras. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The OrcgoJi Boundary — Fifty-four Forty or Fight — 
Battles in Texas — Taylor Crossing the Rio Grande 
— Plans of the Administration — The Wilmot Pro- 
viso. 

Such rights as old powers may acquire in new 
countries by virtue of prior discovery and occupa- 
tion are liable to many disputes. Under such a 
supposed right Spain at one time claimed the entire 
Western coast of the continent of North America, 
including Oregon and a dim region north of it. 
Great Britain also declared a claim, by virtue of dis- 
covery and settlement, to territory which she now 
holds and to Oregon. The United States claimed 
the Columbia River country and an undefined 
domain northerly, southerly, and eastward to Lake 
Superior. One part of the asserted right of Spain 
was released in her treaties with England, and an- 
other, that to Oregon, by the same treaty of 1819 
with the United States, which, in Mr. Polk's opin- 
ion, purchased Florida and gave away Texas. The 
rights asserted by Great Britain and the United 
States, who now held a sort of joint occupation of 
the disputed territory, had been cloudy from the 
beginning, and there had been many diplomatic dis- 
cussions, in which neither power could exhibit a re- 
spectable reason for one boundary line rather than 
another. The treaty of 18 19 placed the Americans 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 75 

in a better position than they had had before, but 
three years later, when Lord Ashburton and Daniel 
Webster were arranging the treaty which defined 
the Northeastern boundary, they avoided any com- 
plications which might have arisen from meddling 
with the doubtful Northwest, Meantime many 
American immigrants and a few British were settling 
in Oregon, and President Tyler opened negotiations 
with the British Government, August 23d, 1844, 
" with a view to establish a permanent boundary 
between the two countries, westward of the Rocky 
Mountains to the Pacific Ocean." 

Secretary of State Calhoun was able to do no more 
than make a beginning, but the Democratic Na- 
tional Convention of 1844, which nominated Mr. 
Polk, adopted a patriotic resolution afifirming the 
American title to Oregon. 

James Buchanan was now Secretary of State, and 
promptly took up the important business left unfin- 
ished by the Tyler Administration. He proposed, 
by direction of President Polk, that England should 
accept a compromise. Her line should run along 
the forty-ninth parallel to the sea, with free use of 
ports on the shore of Vancouver's Island. This 
was declared to be the ultimatum of the United 
States, but the British Minister, Mr. Pakenham, re- 
jected it without even referring it to his own Gov- 
ernment. President Polk at once withdrew all offer 
of compromise, returned to the widest form of the 
old American claim, the newspapers took the matter 
up, and the whole country echoed with a somewhat 
absurd cry of *' fifty-four forty or fight." 



76 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

This was the condition of affairs when Congress 
listened to the President's Message in December, 
1845. His recommendation was that a resolution 
should be adopted giving notice to Great Britain 
that the joint occupation of the disputed territory 
would be terminated at the expiration of one year. 
Both Houses were in a mood to comply, and the 
required resolution was adopted by a more than two- 
thirds vote. 

Great Britain now took up the offer previously 
rejected and proposed, May i8th, 1846, that the 
boundary should be adjusted on the forty-ninth 
parallel. The offer reached the President on June 
6th, and he sent to the Senate a message which in- 
dicated an inclination to reject it and try to obtain 
something better. The Senate, however, had a full- 
grown war upon its hands just then, and was averse 
to additional complications. By a vote of forty-one 
to fourteen the President was advised to conclude 
the treaty as Great Britain offered it. He did so, 
and it was duly ratified on June 15th, 1846. 

One boundary line of the United States was for- 
ever settled by the treaty with England, and all 
popular effervescence connected with " fifty- four 
forty or fight" was lost in the vastly greater excite- 
ment caused by reports which came from the South 
concerning what General Taylor was doing for the 
settlement of the line under his protection. 

Shortly after his arrival upon the Rio Grande he 
began the construction of a fort, in token of per- 
manent American occupation. The fort was on 
land which President Polk fully believed to belong 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 77 

to the United States, but every Mexican and nearly- 
all the Whigs in the United States firmly asserted 
that it had never been French, nor a part of Texas. 
Besides, the Texan treaty negotiated for her having 
been rejected, Mexico had never acknowledged 
Texan independence, and all Mexican statesmen, 
with such American lawyers as Daniel Webster and 
Henry Clay, and all who stood with them, declared 
that there should have been no armed occupation 
of a disputed territory while negotiations for a 
peaceful settlement were in progress. There were 
law points in favor of the Mexicans, which might, 
perhaps, have been seen more clearly by President 
Polk if, instead of such troops as those of Arista and 
Ampudia, there had been a division or two of French 
or British or Germans camped along the Rio Grande. 
Such is the case in nearly all great controversies 
between nations, and the previous repeated threats 
of Mexico, with the fact that a war existed between 
her and that part of the United States which had 
recently been the nearly independent republic of 
Texas, seemed to be additional sanction for the 
immediate employment of force. The President 
deemed it his duty to supplement by the right of 
occupation such rights as were otherwise derived, 
since possession counts for much in any dispute 
concerning the title to real estate. He had been 
mentally prepared, from even before his unexpected 
nomination by the Democratic Party, to assert and 
defend the uttermost interpretation of the old 
French claim. He had for so long a time regarded 
a war with Mexico as a matter of course and in- 



78 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

evitable, that he was almost taking its actual exist- 
ence for granted. He and many others with him 
were already considering such further advantages, 
in addition to the acquisition of Texas, as might be 
gained for the United States by decisive success in 
the prosecution of the war. 

General Ampudia, in command of the Mexican 
force at Matamoras, protested vigorously against 
the presence of the American army and the con- 
struction of Fort Brown. On April nth, 1846, he 
sent to General Taylor a formal demand that all 
American troops should be withdrawn beyond the 
Nueces. It was as if he admitted that the Texas 
difficulty between the two republics was now become 
one of boundaries only, but General Taylor declined 
entering into any discussion of international ques- 
tions or to remove his camp. 

He was compelled to move, nevertheless. Mod- 
erate re-enforcements had reached him before leav- 
ing Corpus Christi, but he had been unable to bring 
with him provisions for the prolonged subsistence 
of so many men. Detachments of Mexican cavalry 
were now operating north of the Rio Grande and 
threatening his communications with his base of 
supplies. This was at Point Isabel, on the Gulf, 
twenty-five miles away. In the latter part of April 
the fort was finished, and was named Fort Brown ; 
the Seventh Infantry was left to defend it, under 
command of Major Jacob Brown, and the remainder 
of the army marched to Point Isabel for supplies. 
When General Taylor left Fort Brown it was known 
that a considerable Mexican force had arrived to 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 79 

Strengthen Ampudia on the other side of the river. 
Also that two scouting parties of American cavalry- 
had been captured on what the President would 
have called their own ground ; but there had been 
no indications of any probable immediate attempt 
to drive out the army of occupation. 

There were supply ships arriving off Point Isabel, 
but there was no harbor, and everything had to be 
tediously boated ashore. It was May 7th before 
the army trains were loaded and the return march 
to Fort Brown could begin. The General had his 
forebodings of trouble to come, and the troops were 
pushed a little. Early on the morning of May 8th, 
as the advance approached a place known as Palo 
Alto, or the Tall Woods, they found themselves 
confronted by a body of Mexican troops, of all 
arms, largely exceeding in number those under 
General Taylor. There was no hesitation on either 
side, for the enemy opened fire at once, while the 
Americans formed in line of battle and moved 
steadily forward. Pretty sharp skirmishing fol- 
lowed, in which the American loss was nine, killed 
and forty-five wounded. The Mexicans retreated, 
and the newspapers glorified the affair as the battle 
of Palo Alto. General Taylor advanced again on 
the 9th, and met with more serious resistance at 
Resaca de la Palma. It was something like a battle, 
but the Mexicans were again defeated, and the gar- 
rison of Fort Brown were relieved from the pressure 
of a siege. They had lost their commander, Major 
Brown, but had suffered only a few other casualties. 
The Mexican force beaten at Palo Alto and at Resaca 



8o JAMES KNOX POLK. 

de la Palma retreated across the Rio Grande, and 
the American army of occupation seemed to have 
accomplished its precise destination — that of de- 
fending President Polk's declaration that the Rio 
Grande had been the rightful boundary of the old 
Mexican State of Texas, now a part of the territory 
of the United States. 

The real purposes of the war with Mexico, how- 
ever, had not yet been unfolded. The President 
was entirely ready for the news of the fighting, and 
had never doubted its result. In the very moment 
of the stirring announcement, May nth, 1846, he 
sent to Congress, then in session, a special war 
message, in which he declared that Mexico, without 
reference to pending negotiations, had " at last in- 
vaded our territory and shed the blood of our citi- 
zens on our own soil." 

There were Whigs in Congress who eloquently 
responded that an invading American army had 
wickedly shed the blood of patriotic Mexicans upon 
their own soil ; but the time for discussing that 
question had already gone by. Congressmen who 
persisted in denouncing the war, even while they 
voted for supplies of money and of men to carry it 
on, thereby doomed themselves to sure defeat at 
the next election and to retirement from political 
life for a long time afterward. Among those who 
deliberately did so during the following year was 
the one Whig member from the Democratic State 
of Illinois. His name was Abraham Lincoln, and 
that was his first and last appearance in the Con- 
gress of the United States. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 8 1 

War with Mexico was declared in due form, and 
an act was passed giving the President fifty thou- 
sand men and ten millions of dollars to carry it on 
with. That is, if his fifty thousand men had been 
already in the field, fully equipped, he was provided 
with about enough money to keep them there two 
months ; but then Congress knew very little about 
war, and the Whigs were vigilantly watching the 
expenditures. 

The suggestion made by the President in his mes- 
sage was embodied in the act voting him his men 
and money, for it began with : " Whereas, by the 
act of the Republic of Mexico, war exists between 
that Government and the United States, Be it 
enacted, etc." 

The whole country rang with warlike preparations, 
but for various reasons no very large re-enforce- 
ments were at once sent to General Taylor. One 
reason was that President Polk did not believe that 
Mexico would long carry on a war at all. He even 
attempted, in July, to open negotiations for peace, 
but failed entirely. He was every way willing to 
try again, since in case of a diplomatic success the 
further aim of the political campaign of 1844, the 
wider dream of the annexationists, might be reached 
at once. Territories of indefinite extent, lying be- 
yond any boundaries which could be assigned to 
Texas, might be obtained in the course of peace 
negotiations. On August loth, 1846, therefore, the 
President requested of Congress the needful author- 
ity and funds for the accomplishment of a result so 
manifestly desirable, in case opportunity should offer. 



82 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

Up to that day the annexation victory of 1844 
had apparently been without blemish. There had 
been no reverse, no check. Texas had been ad- 
mitted, with slavery, and the Mexicans had been 
forcibly ejected from the disputed Rio Grande 
country. General Taylor and his army had now 
crossed that river and were preparing for a further 
advance, with no Mexican army in front of them. 
The nation seemed to have changed its tone with 
reference to the war, and to be enthusiastically lis- 
tening for news of yet other victories, more mag- 
nificent than that of Palo Alto. There was a dark 
cloud rising, nevertheless, full of all the political 
difficulties and storms of the future. 

President Polk's reasonable request was referred 
to the proper committee, and a bill was reported 
giving him as much authority as he required, with 
thirty thousand dollars for preliminary expenses, 
and three millions more to be used at his discre- 
tion. 

Another committee had been in session at the 
same time, made up of anti-slavery Whigs, and they 
also had a bill to report. 

Mexico had abolished slavery about twenty years 
earlier, but her laws had been set aside in the case 
of Texas by the American emigrants, who had at last 
succeeded in becoming once more citizens of the 
United States, bringing their slaves with them. 
Such additional territory as President Polk ex- 
pressed a purpose of acquiring was as yet free soil 
under the Mexican law prohibiting slavery. It 
might naturally be supposed to remain such, the 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 83 

Mexican law not being abrogated by express terms 
in any treaty of annexation ; but John C. Calhoun 
had long ago announced a doctrine of constitutional 
interpretation which was understood to be accepted 
by Mr. Polk and the annexationists, and which re- 
quired explanation with reference to the case in 
hand. According to Mr. Calhoun, the Constitution 
of the United States carried slavery with it into all 
United States territory from which it was not ex- 
pressly excluded by positive law. Enough had 
been said and done to show that in the will and 
understanding of the party in power, the old Mexi- 
can law would be regarded as rendered null and 
void by the treaty of annexation, and that the 
Calhoun doctrine would be made to apply. No 
power could then prevent the extension of slavery, 
for the new regions would all lie south of the pre- 
vention line provided for in the Missouri Compro- 
mise. So reasoned the self-appointed Whig com- 
mittee, and they prepared their part of the proposed 
bill as follows : 

"Provided, That, as an express and fundamental condition to 
the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico, by the 
United States, by virtue of any treaty that may be negotiated be- 
tween them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein 
appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever 
exist in any part of said territory, except for crime whereof the 
party shall be duly convicted." 

The work of the Whig committee was presented 
in the House of Representatives by David Wilmot, 
of Pennsylvania, and became famous in American 



84 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

political history as the Wilmot Proviso. A very 
large number of candidates for office afterward 
gained or lost their elections by replying to the 
question of whether or not they were in favor of its 
adoption. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Wilmot Proviso Again — General Scott and his 
Plans — Bnena Vista — Scott's March to the City of 
Mexico — The Treaty of Peace — Election of Presi- 
dent Taylor — Death of Mr. Polk. 

The history of the United States grew very rap- 
idly during the year 1846. The bill giving the 
President authority and money for his proposed 
negotiations passed the House of Representatives 
loaded with the Wilmot Proviso, but when it reached 
the Senate there seemed a lack of interest in its 
fate, and it was permitted to die with the adjourn- 
ment of that body. 

On August 3d the President vetoed a river and 
harbor appropriation bill because it partook too 
much of the nature of a measure for internal im- 
provements by the Federal Government. 

During the Summer nearly twenty thousand men 
were enlisted for the war with Mexico, and most of 
them were speedily on their way to active service. 
General Taylor was re-enforced, and could go deeper 
into Mexico. On September 24th he stormed and 
captured the fortified Mexican town of Monterey, 
although it was defended by a force superior in 
numbers to his own, and there were signs that at 
least one Whig general was obtaining fame and 
popularity which might make him of political im- 
portance. 



86 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

A detachment of troops under Generals Worth 
and Kearney overran New Mexico, while what 
could hardly be described as a detachment, under 
Captain John C. Fremont, conquered and held 
California. 

When the Thirtieth Congress organized for busi- 
ness, in December, 1847, ^^e Senate was Demo- 
cratic, while the House was Whig, with a Whig- 
Speaker. Antagonisms between the two were to be 
expected, but they were jointly pretty sure to give a 
sufficient support to an Administration which was 
able to report important successes in all directions. 

The message of President Polk contained a review 
of the military situation, and proposed that the 
nation should demand of Mexico " indemnity for 
the past and security for the future." There were 
other recommendations of several kinds, and the 
request for authority and money for peace negotia- 
tions was renewed. 

The lost bill for the latter purpose was once more 
brought forward in the House, and was again passed 
with the Wilmot Proviso. The Senate took it up 
and passed it, but struck out the obnoxious amend- 
ment, sending the whole matter back to the House. 
There was a sharp struggle, but New Mexico and 
California were already in American hands, and it 
would not do to run any risk of losing them. The 
Whigs yielded the point, and passed the bill without 
the proviso, contenting themselves by attaching 
that restriction to the act relating to the Oregon 
treaty. Perhaps even Mr. Calhoun would have 
assented to a rule which might prevent slavery or 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 87 

cotton-growing in the Columbia River country. At 
all events, the political victory of Mr, Polk's admin- 
istration over the anti-slavery opposition was com- 
plete. He had earnestly deprecated agitation of 
the slavery question in Congress, and had urged, 
without immediate success, that temporary civil 
governments should be provided for California and 
New Mexico. 

There were to be several important occurrences 
before President Polk could exercise any part of the 
powers given him by the Peace Negotiations Bill. 
He had wisely declared from the beginning that the 
surest and most profitable peace was to be attained 
only at the end of successful military operations, 
but there had been a division of counsels as to what 
should be the nature of these and by whom they 
should be conducted. 

So far as California and New Mexico were con- 
cerned, much perplexity had already been removed, 
but the best military authorities were almost unan- 
imous in declaring that General Taylor's army of 
occupation, now become an army of invasion, could 
not wisely be ordered to march across country to 
the city of Mexico. 

General Scott had advised, when officially called 
upon for his opinion, that the Mexican capital must 
be reached from the port of Vera Cruz, following, 
in part at least, the old pathway of Hernando Cortes. 
His plans, when brought before the Cabinet, May 
27th, 1846, were disapproved, and there was shortly 
something like an open rupture between the Gen- 
eral and the President. The blame could not be 



88 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

laid entirely upon the latter by any man at all 
acquainted with the brilliant Commander-in-Chief, 
but the fact that an effort was afterward made to 
give the command to Colonel Thomas H. Benton 
instead, clearly confessed political as well as personal 
reasons for desiring Scott's retirement. 

After many very unpleasant things had been said 
in Congress and in the newspapers, General Scott 
was permitted to remain in command, and to carry 
out his own plans in his own way. He pushed his 
preparations with vigor, and was ready, near the 
close of 1846, for an invasion of Mexico by way of 
Vera Cruz. In December he was on the Rio Grande 
in person, intending to prevent any further forward 
movement upon that line ; but General Taylor was 
already in the interior, beyond immediate recall. 
Before he could be ordered back he had met a Mexi- 
can army under Santa Anna, and several times larger 
than his own, had fought with it, February 22d, 
23d, and 24th, 1847, ^t Buena Vista, and had routed 
it thoroughly, thereby providing the Whigs with a 
popular and available Presidential candidate rather 
than adding greatly to the strength of Mr. Polk's 
administration. 

Meantime a fleet and an army, about twelve 
thousand men, had been given to General Scott. 
He had asked for more troops, but was willing to 
go forward with what he had. On March 9th, 
1847, a- landing was effected near Vera Cruz, siege 
operations begun, and on the 27th the fort and town 
were surrendered. 

The plans of General Scott were carried out from 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 89 

step to step with marvellous accuracy. Battle 
after battle was fought and won, somewhat as if his 
own troops and those of the enemy were chessmen 
whose powers he knew, and as if the mountain 
ranges and valleys and roads and all the fortifica- 
tions in his way were only so many parts of a prob- 
lem which he had solved before he began to move 
his pieces. Before the middle of September, 1847, 
the city of Mexico was captured, and no organized 
army remained in any part of the seemingly ruined 
republic. 

What was almost equally important to President 
Polk and to the people of the United States, was 
the fact that there was for a time no responsible 
government left in Mexico with which a binding 
treaty of peace could be concluded. 

Mr. Trist, an agent of the State Department, had 
accompanied the later movements of the army, and 
his attempts to negotiate were said to have even 
interfered with military operations ; but after the 
capture of the city of Mexico they were continued 
under especial difificulties. 

The American army remained upon the soil it had 
in a manner conquered but did not wish to keep, 
while an almost new Mexican Government took 
form and prepared to discuss terms of peace. When 
these were agreed upon the utmost hopes of the 
annexation party seemed to be more than realized. 
Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California remain- 
ed in the possession of the United States upon pay- 
ment of about fifteen millions of dollars and some 
other similarly trifling considerations. 



90 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in 
Mexico on February 2d, 1848, was approved by the 
United States on March loth, following, and the 
war with Mexico was over. 

The history of constitutional government hardly 
furnishes a parallel to the course of political parties 
in the United States during the latter part of the 
Polk Administration. A great political party, the 
Democratic, triumphantly carried out its declared 
policy under the direction of its chosen leader. A 
war for territorial aggrandizement was conducted 
with perfect success. At the same time an op- 
posing party, the Whig, questioning all the suc- 
cesses won and condemning them upon moral 
grounds only, steadily increased its power until it 
became almost the voice of the nation. The Wil- 
mot Proviso was only nominally and temporarily 
detached from the results of the treaty of Guada- 
lupe Hidalgo. Not one acre of ground beyond the 
boundaries finally assigned to Texas ever became 
part of a slave-holding State. 

The troops of the United States began to return 
home as soon as peace was declared. The city of 
Mexico was evacuated in June. The remainder of 
the year supplied the Administration with multi- 
tudinous duties pertaining to the restoration of the 
national affairs to a peace basis. This included the 
local appointments and general regulation of the 
vast territory other than Texas which had become 
part of the United States. It was a period of severe 
toil and great anxiety to Mr. Polk, and he devoted 
himself to the dischars^e of his duties with an inten- 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 91 

sity of application which made serious although not 
externally perceptible inroads upon a constitution 
which had never been strong. The course of politi- 
cal events added more than a little to the annoy- 
ances of his position, for before the end of the year 
it was manifest that all the magnificent results of 
the policy of annexation were to be turned over to 
the hands of its enemies. 

The Democratic National Convention was sum- 
moned to meet at Baltimore on May 22d, 1848. 
There were elements within the Democratic Party 
which were known to be opposed to according to 
Mr. Polk a second term, but a nomination could in 
all probability have been obtained for him if such 
had been his desire. More than any other man, he 
was the representative, in the minds of the people, 
of the ideas and policy of the Democratic Party, as 
expressed by the National Convention of 1844, and 
there might have been political wisdom in asking a 
popular verdict upon his administration if that could 
have been done. 

His own positive refusal to accept of a nomina- 
tion, even should one be offered him, deprived his 
party of any possible advantage, and relieved some 
of its more timid leaders of any responsibility. In 
a letter to his personal friend. Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey, 
May 19th, 1848, Mr. Polk definitely refused to per- 
mit his name to come before the convention. 
Whatever other reasons he may have had or offered, 
the truth was that he was tired out and felt an im- 
perative need of rest. 

The convention met upon the day appointed, and 



92 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

the Wilmot Proviso came also in the persons of a 
conflicting delegation from New York, who formally 
withdrew, went home, and aided Martin Van Buren 
in organizing the Free-Soil movement in that State, 
which destroyed the Democratic majority in 1848 
precisely as the Birney movement had destroyed 
that of Clay in 1844. 

The Baltimore Convention seemed almost to avoid 
the Mexican War in its nominations, although not 
in its platform, for Lewis Cass for President, and 
Senator Butler for Vice-President, were names with- 
out any known military association. On the other 
hand, the Whig Party put aside all its old-time 
leaders and nominated General Zachary Taylor for 
President, with Millard Fillmore, of New York, for 
Vice-President. 

It was the old story of American Presidential 
elections. The battle of New Orleans elected one 
President, that of Tippecanoe another, and now the 
hard fight at Buena Vista added thousands of very- 
much-needed votes to the Whig electoral tickets. 
General Taylor was elected, but there were many 
who declared that he could not have been if the 
name of Mr. Polk had been presented instead of 
that of Mr. Cass. 

Congress assembled for the Winter session as 
usual, but it had new questions before it. There 
was difficulty in obtaining proper legislation upon 
the ordinary routine requirements of the National 
Government. All measures for the management of 
the newly-acquired domain were examined with 
reference to their bearing upon the question of 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 93 

slavery extension, and all men nominated to official 
positions were inquired of as to the Calhoun doc- 
trine and the Wilmot Proviso. Patriotic men, Mr. 
Polk being very outspokenly of the number, de- 
plored the intensity of sectional animosity devel- 
oped. They saw and declared that the peace of the 
nation and the permanency of the Union were 
placed in imminent peril, and they strove in vain to 
allay the growing tumult. The administration of 
Mr. Polk expired after a session in which hardly 
any measures of importance had been brought to a 
conclusion by Congress, and the nation seemed to 
draw a breath of relief when the day of final adjourn- 
ment came. 

President Taylor was inaugurated on March 4th, 
1849, ^^^ ^'^'^- Polk rode with him in the carriage 
which conveyed him to the Capitol to take the oath 
of office. It was heartily declared, at the time, 
that never had a retiring President acted with 
greater courtesy and dignity in making way for his 
chosen successor. There were, indeed, several de- 
cidedly unpleasant memories connected with other 
changes of office and of party domination. 

As President, and, to some extent, even as a 
leader of his own party, Mr. Polk's political career 
was over. The Whig Party had formally declared 
that the same was true of Henry Clay, and the 
reason was the same. Their work was done. That 
Mr. Polk had performed his appointed task with 
excellent ability and sincere patriotism can be under- 
stood better now than in the fiercely excited days 
just after the Mexican War. 



94 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

Even then the severe criticisms made upon him 
came from only one section, and from barely a 
majority of the people of that section. Hardly any 
came from the South, and the encomiums heaped 
upon him by his fellow-citizens in that section and 
by many tongues at the North went far to compen- 
sate him for the strictly partisan condemnation 
which attached to his policy rather than to defects 
in his personal conduct. He had never been a 
traveller. He had seen comparatively a small part 
only of the country which had made him its Chief 
Magistrate, and he determined to take his own time 
and method of getting back to Nashville. 

He went from Washington to Richmond, Vir- 
ginia, where he was received with legislative honors. 
From that point southward his journey was every- 
where attended with enthusiastic demonstrations of 
popular respect and appreciation. The North Caro- 
lina people were proud of the fact that he had been 
born among them ; the State University, of which 
he was a graduate, had made him a Doctor of Laws 
in 1847, ^""^ i^ow ^ tl'^s people seemed ready to 
gather and tell him that they approved of his ad- 
ministration, although there was a dangerously large 
Whig vote in North Carolina. Their enthusiasm 
was more than rivalled by that of South Carolina 
and Georsfia, and the ex-President found similar 

. greetings awaiting him all the way to New Orleans. 

pHere, after a grand reception, he took passage up 
, the river, and reached his home at Nashville early 

^ in May, 1849. 

Mr. Polk was but fifty-four years old — a very 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 95 

young man to have so remarkable a career behind 
him. Men who saw him after his return to Nash- 
ville said that he seemed to be in vigorous health 
and to show no sign of age except in his flowing 
gray hair. He was but little above the middle 
height, but his form was spare, and he seemed taller. 
He was still unbent, and his graceful, kindly man- 
ners had always been a noted characteristic. _ Even 
the opposition press had unsuccessfully tried to 
make a point of them as indicating a too studied 
attempt to please. If being an aristocrat was in- 
tended to mean that he was lacking in consideration 
for plain people, all the settlers along Duck River 
could have answered any such calumny. ihey 
knew him, and they had a sort of kinship affection 
for him which they witnessed whenever an oppor- 
tunity offered, at the polls or elsewhere. 

There had never been any children in the house- 
hold of the ex-President, but he had adopted a son 
of his brother, Marshall Polk. Except for this lack 
the mansion on Grundy's Hill, the ample fortune, 
the social position, the public honor, the long suc- 
cess in political life, the troops of friends, appeared 
like a wonderful harvest to have been gathered by 
the boy who was considered hardly strong enough 
to make his own way in the world, and who had 
begun it by a surveyor's camp f^re in the wilderness 

of Tennessee. 

The career of James K. Polk was more nearly 
and more entirely at an end than he or others 
imagined. His vitality had been lowered by the 
fatigues of the Executive office, and he had for years 



f I f f ^ 

96 JAMES KNOX FOLK. fiVT ^ 

suffered occasionally from the effects of malarial / 9 
poisoning. These now returned upon him, but not, 
at first, in a manner that seemed alarming. It was, 
however, "the cholera year, " and many disorders 
assumed a more than commonly virulent form. • 
That of Mr. Polk confined him to his bed at last ; 
it would but be for a few days, they said. The days 
went by, and each found him more and more feeble, 
until, June 15th, 1849, ^^^^ unexpected end came. 

Mr. Polk had always been a professed believer in 
Christian doctrine, although not a church member. 
In his last illness he received baptism at the hands 
of a Methodist minister, an old personal friend. 
No man ever questioned his private morality or 
integrity. He left behind him a record as a states- 
man which for a long time prevented those who had 
voted against him from doing justice to either his 
ability or his patriotism. That time has forever 
gone by, and the North and South alike can honor 
the memory of the annexation leader, the Duck 
River farmer's boy who became President of the 
United States. 



